The first of the escaped inmates was chased through the French Quarter, not even two miles from the New Orleans city jail. He was caught several hours after he and nine other inmates had fled the jail through a hole in a cell wall.
The second was tracked down not long after, through a call to a tip line. A third was found on the other side of the city, arrested at the end of the first day following their brazen escape.
Since then, nothing.
Four days into the manhunt, seven other men have continued to evade capture. Their jailbreak has alarmed and captivated New Orleans, as details have emerged about their dash across Interstate 10 on foot and a taunting misspelled message left behind: “to easy LOL.”
The escape has also brought new scrutiny on the Orleans Parish jail, a long-troubled facility with a history of poor conditions and insufficient oversight of inmates.
Investigators said they had received intelligence on all of the escaped inmates, who ranged from 19 to 42 and were being held on charges including murder, attempted murder, armed robbery and carrying illegal weapons. But their pursuit has resulted in dead ends and tips that have gotten the authorities close — but not close enough.
“We end up getting there just a little too late,” Col. Robert P. Hodges, the superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, said in a news conference on Sunday evening. Officials suggested the inmates might be getting help from friends and relatives.
As the sprawling search continues, officials have cautioned residents to be on alert. They also asked them to report any possible sightings or other information about the escapees. But they said the city was largely operating normally.
The jailbreak punctuated what had already been a strange and turbulent year, starting with a terror attack on New Year’s Day that left 14 people dead after a man rammed his truck into revelers in the French Quarter. The attack increased the already plentiful disruptions and security precautions that come with hosting the Super Bowl. And before January was over, a winter storm dumped more snow on New Orleans than the city had seen during most residents’ lifetimes.
Now, with an escape that could be one of the largest in Louisiana’s history, the city finds itself looking not just for the men, but also an understanding of how the inmates were able to pull it off, possibly with inside help. Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana said the jailbreak “should never have happened” and demanded answers in the Sunday news conference.
“The public deserves to know who, what and how this happened,” he said.
The jail, run by the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, has been under a federal consent decree — an agreement under which officials work to meet federal standards — since 2013. Problems include overcrowding and understaffing. A federal monitor and others have also complained of lax oversight, with some areas of the jail going unsupervised for hours.
The sheriff’s office has said that about a third of the cameras in the jail don’t work, and have cited “defective locks and doors” — an issue that it claims to have raised with city officials and the federal judge monitoring the jail.
Mr. Landry also sought to cast blame for the escape on broader failings of the criminal justice system. Cracking down on crime and violence has been a defining theme of his administration since he took office last year.
“There is also no excuse for the way these cases are currently being mismanaged by our criminal justice system,” the governor said.
Some of the escapees, like other inmates at the jail, had been there for lengthy periods — in some cases, at least two years — while awaiting trial or sentencing. Jails are generally meant to hold inmates for short periods of time; prisons are designed to hold people who have been convicted and are serving longer sentences.
One of the escaped men who is still at large, Derrick Groves, 27, was accused of killing two people and injuring two others during Mardi Gras in 2018. He was convicted in 2019, but the jury’s verdict was not unanimous, and a new law led to a retrial.
That retrial was declared a mistrial after a juror read news coverage of the case. Another trial in 2023 resulted in a deadlocked jury. Mr. Groves was convicted in a fourth trial last year, and is waiting to be sentenced for second-degree murder.
The breakout happened early Friday morning. Cameras caught several of the inmates jarring open a cell door at 12:22 a.m.; about 20 minutes later, more had crammed into the cell. At the time, no sheriff’s deputy was on duty in that part of the jail, and a civilian employee monitoring the cameras had stepped away for food, officials said.
Three employees have been suspended without pay while an internal investigation is underway, officials with the sheriff’s office said.
Inside the cell, a metal toilet and sink had been torn out of the wall, and a hole had been carved just large enough for the men to squeeze through. At 1 a.m., video footage showed the men running out of a loading dock, with some of them having swapped their jail uniforms for street clothes.
Nineteen minutes later, they scaled a fence, using blankets to protect themselves from the barbed wire, and ran across the interstate into a nearby neighborhood. “These inmates are accused of serious crimes, and until they are back in custody we should all remain vigilant,” said Jonathan Tapp, special agent in charge of the F.B.I. in New Orleans.
Officials had another warning for residents: Do not help them.
“If anybody harbors them,” Governor Landry said, “if anybody aids them, and we find out, we will arrest you, and we will bring you to justice as well.”
Rick Rojas is the Atlanta bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the South.
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