Authorities are searching for a Louisiana inmate who escaped from a parish jail Thursday night, a feat he also accomplished nearly a year ago.
Tra’Von Johnson, 22, made his latest escape from the Tangipahoa Parish Jail, which has a history of jailbreaks involving a half dozen inmates in recent years, the sheriff’s office announced. Johnson had been awaiting a trial for his alleged role in a home invasion that left a man killed and a child injured, authorities said.
Authorities said they became suspicious when a member of the public called the sheriff’s office shortly before 10 p.m. on Thursday, questioning whether Johnson was still in custody.
There was an incident at a dorm in the jail where inmates flooded a cell, Sheriff Gerald Sticker said during a news briefing Friday. While a crew was cleaning the dorm, Johnson and another inmate, Trevon Wallace, opened the back door to the jail that leads into the yard, Sticker said. Wallace did not escape and was escorted back inside.
“Following an immediate head count of the jail population and a review of Johnson’s movements throughout the day, it was determined Johnson escaped around 4:30 p.m. when another inmate helped lift him over the perimeter fence,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Sticker said at least four individuals were placed on administrative leave pending a full review.
Law officers are now searching for Johnson and also contacting victims and reaching out to Johnson’s relatives and associates, the sheriff’s office said.
In May 2024, Johnson was among a group of four inmates who escaped from the jail over the Memorial Day weekend by breaking through the jail’s perimeter fence during recreation time in the yard. Johnson and another inmate were found hiding in a dumpster behind a Dollar General store.
Manpower shortages, inadequate staff training and experience, a lack of supervision and insufficient head counts contributed to the escape last year, authorities said at the time.
Tangipahoa Parish’s jail in Amite is about 75 miles northwest of New Orleans.
Johnson’s escape comes as authorities continue to search for five of the 10 inmates who escaped from a jail in New Orleans on May 16. The escape from the Orleans Parish Justice Center, part of which was captured on surveillance video, showed the inmates removing a jail cell door off its track and breaching a wall behind the toilet of a cell.