By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

He was shot multiple times in a shootout with police, but the 20-year-old Downs man who held authorities at bay for more than eight hours in Downs is being released from a Wichita hospital.

Matthew D. Thille, Downs, was expected be taken into custody by authorities in Wichita and transferred to the Jewell County jail in Mankato either Tuesday afternoon or today. He was shot multiple times less than two weeks ago.

He was in good condition Monday, according to Kansas Bureau of Investigation Director Bob Blecha, who said he was scheduled to be released from the hospital.

"He is in good enough condition to be released," Blecha said.

"We're going to get him back shortly," Jewell County Attorney Darrell Miller said Tuesday.

Thille suffered multiple gunshot wounds March 21 when he charged from his Downs residence -- after holding police at bay for nearly eight hours -- shooting at members of the Kansas Highway Patrol Special Response Team. The black-garbed officers returned fire with automatic weapons.

He is being returned to Jewell County where the events of March 21 first started, when Thille was to have been taken into custody after entering a no contest plea to charges of felony burglary of a motor vehicle and a misdemeanor count of theft.

As he was visiting with members of his family, he "bolted and ran out of the Jewell County Courthouse," a statement issued by Miller said.

Once outside, he was able to steal a pickup truck from nearby the courthouse and headed toward Downs.

He was spotted by a Mitchell County officer as he was driving through Cawker City. Thille drove the pickup into the front yard of his house in Downs and ran inside. While inside the house, he fired several times, striking several patrol cruisers.

In addition to a scheduled May 6 sentencing hearing on the burglary and theft charges, Miller has filed charges of aggravated escape and theft of the pickup against Thille in connection with the events that unfolded March 21.

Charges against Thille also have been filed in Osborne County District Court, although Osborne County Attorney Paul Gregory said no warrants have been served on the charges.

Sources close to the investigation said the charges were attempted murder and were filed shortly after the incident in Downs started.

Gregory wouldn't discuss the nature of the charges and said it's likely other charges could be forthcoming.

"But I like to get everything sitting in front of me," he said.

A federal charge of unlawful possession of a firearm after a felony conviction also was pending against Thille, and his trial was set for April 26. That charge stems from the possession of two shotguns after he had been convicted in a 2008 case in Osborne County.

Because federal charges already were pending, officials are expecting additional federal charges to result from the incident in Downs.

No new federal charges have been filed, however, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.