4th New Orleans jail escapee captured; 6 inmates still on the loose: 'I am personally afraid,' DA says as his lawyers flee
A fourth New Orleans jail escapee has been captured, but six inmates are still on the loose since 10 of them broke out of the Orleans Parish Jail on Friday.
Meanwhile, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams told CNN that "I am personally afraid, not just for myself, but for my lawyers who tried the case against" still at-large escapee Derrick Groves, who was convicted of murdering two men in 2018.
What's more, Williams told CNN that he found out about the jailbreak not from an official alert — but from the media.
Williams prosecuted Groves, the news network said.
Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff's Office
“These lawyers got out of town this weekend with their families out of fear of retribution and retaliation,” Williams added to CNN.
Late Monday night, the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office announced that Louisiana State Police and New Orleans Police captured the fourth escapee, Gary Price, in the city. Also previously captured were Dkenan Dennis, Kendell Myles, and Robert Moody.
Still on the run are Groves, Corey Boyd, Jermaine Donald, Antoine Massey, Leo Tate, and Lenton VanBuren. They're reportedly considered "armed and dangerous," and CNN said they face charges such as aggravated assault with a firearm, false imprisonment with a weapon, and murder.
As Blaze News previously reported, the inmates were discovered missing during a routine 8:30 a.m. Friday head count after having escaped sometime just after midnight — which gave them about an eight-hour head start. CBS News said they likely had help from the inside.
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Sheriff Susan Hutson said the inmates pulled a sliding jail cell door off its track around 12:23 a.m. and left the jail by 1:01 a.m. after breaching a wall behind a toilet, CBS News said, adding that the toilet and bolts were removed using toiletry items, although Hutson didn't specify what the items were.
Williams told CNN a number of “breakdowns” contributed to the escape. For example, shortly after midnight Friday, a corrections monitoring technician went to get food — and during that time, several inmates started yanking on a cell door.
Williams added to CNN that a staff member should have been monitoring cameras in the facility in real-time: “The idea that they are saying they had to go back and look at footage is ridiculous."
More from CNN:
Eventually, the door broke open. The men snuck into another cell. In a matter of minutes, 10 inmates maneuvered past a metal toilet, squeezed through a small hole carved in the wall, and fled into the darkness.
The inmates brought blankets to protect themselves from getting cut by barbed wire. They then scaled a fence and bolted across Interstate 10. They darted into a nearby neighborhood, ripped off their inmate clothes, and disappeared into the night.
As Blaze News previously reported, inmates also scrawled obscene messages for the guards on the wall behind the toilet, CBS News said, adding that one was misspelled; it reads, "To easy, LOL."
Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff's Office
The hole itself is one sign of the continued lapses at the facility, according to Williams. “Someone should have caught the destruction of the toilet and destruction of the wall and getting out, because that doesn’t happen in a day, does it?” Williams added to the news network. “So it was missed during the entire time that that plan was being hatched.”
Williams added to CNN, “This is not just about one lunch break."
The district attorney also told the news network that several hours went by before authorities notified victims and witnesses and the public of the escape: “If it happened at 1 a.m., they should have been notified at 1:30, right, because they were in harm’s way."
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The sheriff said she learned about the escape around 9 a.m. Friday — eight hours after the estimated time of the escape — and the U.S. Marshals Task Force was alerted by 9:30 a.m.
What's more, Williams told CNN that he found out about the jailbreak not from an official alert — but from the media.
Because the escapees may have crossed state lines, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill asked her counterparts in Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Tennessee to keep an eye out, the news network also said.
Sheriff Hutson has received the lion's share of criticism, CNN reported.
Democrat Louisiana state Rep. Aimee Adatto Freeman said Hutson should resign and called the escape an “an alarming failure of leadership" on her part.
Republican state Rep. Mike Bayham in a statement to Blaze News also blasted Hutson, saying she "has no business seeking re-election this November. New Orleans could do better randomly picking a name out of the phone book than Sheriff Hutson."
However, the sheriff told CNN that she had “no plans to resign” and remains "committed to leading this office through the current crisis and continuing the long-term work of reform and public service I was elected to carry out.”
Hutson added that "we have indication that these detainees received assistance in their escape from individuals inside of our department."
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