The New Orleans jailbreak sparked a massive manhunt for the 10 inmates who escaped from custody. More than 200 law enforcement officers from federal, state and local agencies are involved in the effort to capture the inmates, according to the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, which runs the jail.
How many of the New Orleans inmates are still at large?
As of Wednesday, five inmates were still on the run and five have been captured.
Leading up to the jailbreak, one of the inmates who escaped, 32-year-old Antoine Massey, allegedly told a maintenance worker, Sterling Williams, to shut off the water for a cell, according to court documents. Williams told investigators with the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation that Massey threatened to shank him if he didn’t turn off the water, according to an affidavit for a warrant for Williams’ arrest.
According to the affidavit, Williams admitted to shutting off the water. He was arrested Monday, May 19, and charged with two felonies, 10 counts of principal to simple escape and one count of malfeasance in office, authorities said.
Two other people were arrested and accused of helping some of the 10 inmates who escaped, the Louisiana State Police announced on Wednesday, May 21.
Timeline of the New Orleans jailbreak
Here’s a rundown of how the inmates escaped from the jail and the ongoing search:
At 10:30 p.m. CDT on Thursday, May 15, the night before the escape, the jail was placed on lockdown, according to the sheriff’s office. Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson later told reporters her agency has been asking local officials for years for millions of dollars in funding to upgrade faulty locks on cell doors.
In the early predawn hours of Friday, May 16, no sheriff’s deputy was assigned to the part of the jail where the escaped inmates were incarcerated, and a civilian worker monitoring the area had briefly stepped away to get food, according to the sheriff’s office.
At around 12:22 a.m., a surveillance camera captured several inmates out of their cells forcing open another cell’s sliding door, according to the sheriff’s office.
By about 12:43 a.m., multiple inmates had entered the cell they were trying to access, according to the sheriff’s office.
Inside the cell, the inmates removed a combination sink-toilet from the wall of the cell and created a hole in the wall, according to the affidavit. They were able to saw steel bars behind the cell’s sink, per the affidavit.
“With the water being turned off, the inmates were able to successfully make good on their escapes,” Louisiana Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Michael Moore wrote in the affidavit. “If the inmates removed the sink in the cell and disconnected the rest of the plumbing with the water still on, the plan to escape would not have been successful and potentially flooded the cell, drawing attention to their actions.”
At around 1 a.m., another surveillance camera captured the inmates fleeing the building through a loading dock, according to the sheriff’s office. The group then went down a perimeter road toward a new part of the facility that’s under construction.
At about 1:19 a.m., the inmates were seen climbing a fence separating the jail from the construction site, according to the sheriff’s office. The inmates used blankets to protect themselves from the barbed wire on the fence. A traffic camera captured the inmates dashing across Interstate 10 and entering a nearby neighborhood. Sheriff’s office investigators found discarded clothing in the neighborhood that’s believed to have belonged to the inmates.
At 8:30 a.m., the inmates’ disappearance was discovered during a routine head count, and the jail’s leadership was told of the escape at 8:35 a.m., according to the sheriff’s office. The alarm spurred jail staff to search the facility as investigators looked through surveillance video footage.
Shortly before 10 a.m., surveillance footage from a nonprofit crime camera organization captured inmate Kendell Myles, 20, on Bourbon Street in New Orleans’ popular French Quarter area, according to CBS affiliate WWL-TV.
Authorities captured Myles at around 11:30 a.m., according to WWL-TV. The Louisiana State Police said troopers spotted him in the French Quarter and chased him on foot. According to the sheriff’s office, he was found hiding under a car at a hotel parking garage.
At about 7:32 p.m., another inmate, 21-year-old Robert Moody, was captured in another part of the city after a tip was given to the nonprofit organization Crimestoppers, according to the sheriff’s office.
At 9:36 p.m., the sheriff’s office posted to social media that a third inmate, Dkenan Dennis, 24, was apprehended in a different area of the city.
On Monday, May 19, at 6:56 p.m., the Louisiana State Police posted to Facebook that a fourth inmate, 21-year-old Gary Price, was taken into custody. The agency later said he was captured in the New Orleans East area of the city.
On Tuesday, May 20, at 7:53 p.m., the state police posted to social media that a fifth inmate, Corey Boyd, 19, was taken into custody in the city.
