A manhunt for inmates who escaped from a New Orleans jail by fleeing through a hole behind a toilet entered its fourth day on Monday, with officials increasing the reward for their capture.
Seven of the ten men remained at large on Sunday, according to a Louisiana State Police spokesperson who confirmed this in an email to the Associated Press. The agency was unable to provide information about the investigation’s scope and target due to security concerns, according to the email. The spokesperson also stated that a multiagency task force was searching the region for the remaining fugitives.
In a separate statement, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill stated on Sunday that her office’s “main priority remains recovering the prisoners, protecting the public, securing and stabilizing the facility staff, and building.”
New Orleans jail escape update
At a press conference on Sunday, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said the escape was the worst in recent state history and that he is ordering an audit of both the sheriff’s office and the Orleans Parish Prison.
“This massive jailbreak may be the largest in the state’s history, and it never should have occurred. “The public deserves to know who, what, and how this occurred,” Landry stated.
Three jail employees have been suspended without pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office announced Sunday.
According to Landry, the Department of Corrections will conduct an audit of the jail by the end of this week. He stated that everyone in the criminal justice system must be held accountable, “except for the police, who appear to be doing their job.”
Landry cited delays in charging, prosecution, and sentencing as factors that contribute to jail populations.
He attributed Friday’s escape to a “progressive justice system,” adding, “There is also no excuse for the way these cases are currently being mismanaged in our criminal justice system.”
The governor stated that nine of the ten escapees had been in the pretrial stages for years and requested that the district attorney explain the city’s slow progress in prosecuting criminal cases.
Rewards increased for capture of inmates
According to an FBI statement posted on the social media platform X, at least one of the escaped inmates was apprehended after receiving a tip from the public.
FBI Special Agent Jonathan Trapp announced at a news conference on Sunday that the FBI is offering $10,000 per inmate, up from the $5,000 previously announced. He believes that members of the public may be assisting the men, and that anyone found assisting or abetting them will face arrest.
The escape has sparked intense scrutiny. It took hours for sheriff’s officials to learn of the escape, and even longer to notify New Orleans police, despite the fact that some of the missing inmates are accused of violent crimes and fled into a neighborhood less than two miles from the city’s famous French Quarter.
Louisiana State Police Superintendent Colonel Robert Hodges said authorities in neighboring states have been notified, but officials believe the men have not yet left the state. He stated that the men’s leads have not materialized.
Who are the inmates that escaped?
The men, aged 19 to 42, face a variety of charges, including aggravated assault, domestic abuse battery, and murder. In a news conference on Friday night, New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick warned that the fugitives are dangerous but urged the public “not to panic.”
Derrick Groves, one of the men still at large, has been identified.
Groves, 27, was arrested for the shooting deaths of Jamar Robinson and Byron Jackson on Mardi Gras in 2018, according to CBS affiliate WWL-TV. At least two members of Robinson’s family told WWL-TV that they went into hiding after Groves fled.
“We did not know what was going to happen, how Derrick Groves felt… whether he was coming for us, we did not know,” one of the family members told the news station.
They also stated that the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office did not contact them following the jailbreak.
On Friday, the sheriff’s office identified Robert Moody as one of the escapees apprehended in response to a tip from Crimestoppers.
Dkenan Dennis, 24, and Kendell Myles, 20, were also arrested, according to authorities. They were rebooked and charged with simple escape, according to the sheriff’s department.
How did the New Orleans inmate escape?
According to Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson, the men were able to leave the Orleans Justice Center due to “defective locks.” Hutson stated that she has repeatedly raised concerns about the locks with officials and, as recently as this week, advocated for funding to repair the aging infrastructure.
Hutson stated on Friday that “there is no way” for inmates to escape the facility, which houses 1,400 people, “without help from outside.”
According to the sheriff’s office, the inmates were discovered missing while conducting a routine head count at the Orleans Parish Jail at 8:30 a.m. local time. They are believed to have escaped shortly after midnight.
According to the sheriff, the inmates yanked the sliding jail cell door off the track around 12:23 a.m., and then exited the jail at 1:01 a.m. by breaching a wall behind a toilet.
Authorities provided photos of what they described as clean cuts on metal bars behind the toilets in the jail cells.
The toilet and bolts were removed with toiletry items, according to the sheriff, but he did not specify what they were. The inmates then climbed down a wall and ran across the interstate.
On Friday night, the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office released security video of the extraordinary escape, which shows the inmates sprinting out of the prison and then crossing the freeway.
The escaped inmates also wrote obscene messages to the guards. One, which was misspelled, said “too easy, LOL.”