A manhunt has gripped New Orleans since 10 inmates made a brazen escape from a jail last week in one of the largest such breaks in Louisiana history. The authorities have captured five of the inmates, but five others are still on the run.
A maintenance worker was charged on Tuesday with aiding their escape, bolstering investigators’ suspicions that the men had inside help amid security failures.
Here’s what to know about the situation.
The inmates escaped with some help.
The 10 inmates escaped from the Orleans Parish Justice Center at around 1 a.m. on Friday, the authorities said.
After removing a toilet and sink from a cell where the water supply had been turned off, the inmates cut steel bars and got out through a rectangular hole in the wall.
They left behind a taunting misspelled message scrawled on the wall: “to easy LOL.”
After crawling through the hole, the inmates left the jail through its loading dock. They shed their uniforms, scaled a wall around the jail and then ran across Interstate 10 nearby.
The Louisiana attorney general’s office said on Tuesday said that a maintenance worker had helped the inmates by shutting off water, which allowed them to remove the toilet and sink unit. The worker, who was arrested on Monday, told investigators that an inmate had threatened to “shank him” if he did not shut off the water, according to an affidavit.
At the time, a civilian employee in the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office who was responsible for monitoring security systems had left his station to get food, officials said.
Officials did not notice that the inmates were missing until a routine head count at 8:30 a.m. on Friday.
Five of the 10 men are still on the run.
The escaped inmates, whose ages range from 19 to 42, had been held on charges that included murder, attempted murder, armed robbery and carrying illegal weapons.
Three of the inmates were captured on Friday; a fourth was captured Monday, and a fifth on Tuesday.
Five of the inmates are still on the run: Jermaine Donald, 42; Derrick Groves, 27, Antoine Massey, 32; Leo Tate Sr., 31; and Lenton Vanburen, 26.
Officials have cautioned residents that the escapees may be “armed and dangerous.” More than 200 law enforcement officers have been pulled in to help track down the inmates, the Louisiana State Police said.
Agencies, including the F.B.I. and CrimeStoppers, have offered reward money totaling $20,000 for information leading to the capture of each fugitive.
The recaptured inmates have been transferred to a “secure state facility,” according the Louisiana State Police.
Overcrowding, understaffing and security concerns at the jail.
Officials have said that they are investigating multiple security failures at the jail. At least three employees of the Sheriff’s Office have been suspended without pay while an internal investigation is underway.
Before the escape, there were already concerns about poor conditions, overcrowding and understaffing at the jail, which is run by the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office. It has been under a federal consent decree since 2013 — an agreement under which officials must work to meet federal standards. A federal monitor had also complained that the supervision at the jail was inadequate.
About a third of the cameras in the jail do not work, the Sheriff’s Office has said, and the jail had “defective locks and doors.” The inmates had broken open a locked cell door as part of their escape.
Sheriff Susan Hutson said that the jail had been holding about 1,400 inmates — far more than the guards could handle — and that it had requested $13 million in funding from city officials for security and other needs. The jail, she said, had been struggling with “outdated surveillance, aging infrastructure, blind spots in supervision and critical staffing shortages.”
Michael Levenson contributed reporting.
Isabella Kwai is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news and other trends.
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