Eleven people in custody at the New Orleans’s jail, including a man convicted of four killings, escaped early Friday morning.
The escapes prompted local, state and federal officials to launch a “full-scale search operation” and warn community members to be on the look out for “armed and dangerous” individuals.
“Folks, take it seriously,” the New Orleans police superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at a news conference late Friday morning. Sheriff Susan Hutson, whose agency operates the jail, said: “We are urging the public to remain alert.”
The 11 inmates who escaped from the Orleans Justice Center (OJC) are accused of a variety of crimes, including weapons charges, attempted murder, domestic abuse and murder. Guardian partner WWL Louisiana reported that two of the inmates had reportedly been caught Friday.
Louisiana state police said on X that they had caught one of the alleged escapers after a brief foot chase in New Orleans’s well-known French Quarter neighborhood.
Among the escapers was Derrick Groves, who in October was convicted of fatally shooting two people while wounding two others in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood on 13 February 2018 as the city celebrated Fat Tuesday. Jurors found him guilty of second-degree murder and attempted murder, and – though murder carries mandatory life imprisonment – he had been awaiting sentencing in the case, court records show.
Separately, after those convictions at trial, Groves pleaded guilty to two reduced charges of manslaughter in connection with a double slaying in 2017.
The inmates purportedly escaped at midnight, but facility guards did not notice they were gone until 8.30am local time during a routine headcount.
Hours after officials announced the escape, a criminal justice source provided the Guardian with a photo showing a window-size hole in the wall of an OJC cell leading to the outside. Handwritten messages left around the hole included ones reading “Fuck OPSO”, referring to the Orleans parish sheriff’s office in charge of the jail, and “suck my dick OJC”.
“We innocent,” read another message. Still another, which was misspelled, had an arrow pointing down to the hole in the cell wall and read: “To easy lol.”
Authorities did not immediately confirm the authenticity of the photo, though multiple law enforcement sources told the Guardian they believed the image to be authentic.
Officials did not take any questions at the news conference but said the FBI, US marshals and state troopers were helping the city’s police department and sheriff’s deputies search for the escapers. Louisiana’s attorney general, Liz Murrill, said her office would “thoroughly review” exactly how the breakout occurred once everyone had been captured.
Hutson added: “We are launching a full investigation to determine how this escape occurred, including reviewing facility protocols, staff performance and physical security measures. … Any lapses or failures that contributed to this incident will be addressed swiftly and with full accountability.”
The Orleans Justice Center was previously known as the Orleans Parish Prison. It has long been the subject of scrutiny by the justice department over allegations of civil rights violations, leading to a reform pact with the federal government in 2016. An independent monitor tracks the jail’s compliance with the reform pact, which is known as a consent decree.
Donald Trump’s administration recently ordered a review of all consent decrees affecting law enforcement agencies in the US, calling them “political handcuffs that make aggressively enforcing the law impossible”. The administration said the goal of the review was to determine whether it made sense to modify, rescind or move “to conclude such measures that unduly impede the performance of law enforcement functions”.
Murill told WDSU that Friday’s events did not “bode well” for the jail’s consent decree.
Friday’s escapes occurred less than two weeks after New Orleans voters reapproved – by the thinnest of margins – a property tax funding maintenance, staffing and certain programs at the sheriff’s office in charge of the city’s jail. An initial count reportedly found the tax renewal passed by two votes after more than 24,000 ballots had been cast. A recount subsequently found the tax renewal passed by four votes.
A statement that Hutson provided to the news media after the recount promised she would ensure her office would “continue to ensure our deputies are well-equipped and provide transformative justice so that detainees leave better than they came”.
“Progress is evident more every day,” the statement said.
Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans contributed reporting
