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Seven men – including one convicted in four killings and others charged with murder – remained on the run after a breakout at New Orleans’ jail that officials fear may have been enabled by help from within their own ranks.
A total of 10 men had participated in the brazen overnight escape by fleeing through a hole behind a toilet and scaling a wall while the lone guard assigned to their cell pod was away getting food.
Three of the escapees had been captured within hours, according to officials, who on Saturday continued a frantic search overnight for those still on the loose.
Surveillance footage, shared with media during a news conference, showed the escapees sprinting out of the facility – some wearing orange clothing and others in white. They scaled a fence, using blankets to avoid being cut by barbed wire, and then some could be seen sprinting across the nearby interstate and into a neighborhood.
A photograph obtained by numerous news outlets, including the Guardian, showed the opening behind a toilet in a cell that the men escaped through after it was removed. Above the hole are scrawled messages that include profanities: “To Easy LoL” with an arrow pointing at the gap, and “catch us when you can”.
The absence of the 10 men, who also utilized facility deficiencies that officials have long complained about in their escape, went unnoticed for hours. It was not until a routine morning headcount, more than seven hours later, that law enforcement learned of the escape.
Officials from the sheriff’s office say no deputy was at the pod where the fugitives had been held. There was a technician, a civilian, there to observe the pod, but she had stepped away to get food, they said.
Soon after the escape, attempted murder suspect Kendall Myles, 20, was apprehended after a brief foot chase through the French Quarter. He had previously escaped twice from juvenile detention centers.
By Friday evening, two more fugitives had been captured. Officials found battery suspect Robert Moody, 21, in New Orleans’ Central City section thanks to a Crimestoppers tip, according to the Orleans parish sheriff’s office, which runs the jail. Dkenan Dennis, an armed robbery suspect, was found near an eastern New Orleans highway, the Louisiana attorney general, Liz Murrill, announced on the social media platform X.
The Orleans parish sheriff, Susan Hutson, said the men were able to get out of the Orleans Justice Center because of “defective locks”. Hutson said she has continuously raised concerns about the locks to officials and, as recently as this week, advocated for money to fix the ailing infrastructure.
Hutson said there are indications that people inside her department helped the fugitives escape.
“It’s almost impossible, not completely, but almost impossible for anybody to get out of this facility without help,” she said of the jail, where 1,400 people are being held.
The escapees yanked open a door to enter the cell with the hole at about 1am Friday.
At least one of the steel bars protecting plumbing fixtures “appeared to have been intentionally cut using a tool”, according to a statement from the Orleans sheriff’s office on Friday night.
The men shed their jail uniforms once out of the facility, and it is still unclear how some of them obtained regular clothing so quickly, officials said.
Three sheriff’s employees have been placed on suspension pending the outcome of the investigation. It was not immediately clear whether any of the employees were suspected of helping with the escape. Officials also didn’t say if the guard who left to get food was among the three suspended.
The escapees range in age from 19 to 42. Most are in their 20s.
One of the fugitives, Derrick Groves, was convicted on two charges of second-degree murder and two charges of attempted second-degree murder at a trial in October for his role in a deadly quadruple shooting on Fat Tuesday in 2018. He also pleaded guilty to two charges of manslaughter in connection with a double killing in 2017 – and an unrelated charge of battery of a correctional facility employee filed against him in April 2024.
Murder convictions carry mandatory life imprisonment. But he remained at New Orleans’ jail rather than at a state prison after his attorney was suspended from practicing law and there were post-conviction proceedings related to his double murder trial pending against him.
Law enforcement warned that Groves may attempt to locate witnesses in the murder trial.
Four others – Corey Boyd, Lenton Vanburen, Jermaine Donald and Leo Tate – are charged with murder. Gary Price, 21, is charged with attempted murder.
Hutson said the police department was actively working with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to search for the fugitives.
Hutson said the jail is about 60% staffed.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
