10 inmates, including several murder suspects, escape from New Orleans jail after breaching wall behind toilet, sheriff says

By Julianna Bragg, Holly Yan, Dalia Faheid, CNN

(CNN) — Ten inmates escaped a New Orleans jail after breaching a wall behind a toilet and may have had help, the local sheriff said Friday. So far only one of the men has been found.

“We have indication that these detainees received assistance in their escape from individuals inside of our department,” Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said at a news conference Friday afternoon.

After breaching the wall at the Orleans Justice Center in New Orleans, the inmates left through a door used to bring in supplies around 1 a.m., scaled a wall and ran across the interstate, Hutson said. The words “To Easy LoL” can be seen written on the wall above the hole, with an arrow pointing towards it, according to a photo shared by the sheriff’s office.

The escape wasn’t discovered until hours later, at 8:30 a.m., when staff noticed them missing during a routine head count, according to the sheriff.

While inmates are normally in lockdown at the facility at 10:30 p.m., the inmates were able to escape because of defective locks on the cells, officials said. “There are deficiencies in these facilities that cause public safety concerns,” Hutson said.

The 10 escaped inmates have been identified as Corey Boyd, Dkenan Dennis, Jermaine Donald, Derrick Groves, Antoine Massey, Robert Moody, Kendell Myles, Gary Price, Leo Tate and Lenton Vanburen, CNN affiliate WVUE reported.

Online records show the inmates face a wide array of charges. Several have been charged with murder. Other charges include aggravated assault with a firearm and false imprisonment with a weapon.

Officials initially reported that 11 people had escaped the facility, but later said it was a miscount and 10 had escaped. The inmate had been moved to a different cell, but it had not been updated in the system, Hutson said.

One of the escapees, Myles, was captured after deputies found him hiding under a car at a hotel parking garage, according to the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office. Myles ran away when troopers tried to make contact with him, but he was quickly apprehended, Louisiana State Police said.

Myles was previously charged with attempted second-degree murder, according to Orleans Parish records. He has been rebooked for a new charge of simple escape, the sheriff’s office said on Facebook.

“Thank you to Troop NOLA for their diligence and speed in apprehending the first escapee,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said.

Hutson said the sheriff’s office is working towards getting the nine remaining inmates back into custody and investigating exactly how they escaped the facility.

“We do acknowledge there is no way people can get out of this facility without there being some type of lapse in security,” Hutson said. “It’s almost impossible…for anybody to get out of this facility without help from the outside.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said: “Someone clearly dropped the ball and there’s no excuse for this.”

The sheriff’s office urged the public to be on high alert for the missing inmates, who are considered armed and dangerous. Anyone who thinks they might see an escaped inmate or know his whereabouts should call Crime Stoppers or 911 immediately.

“The remaining individuals are still being actively pursued, and our deputies, in collaboration with local and state law enforcement, are working tirelessly to locate and return them to custody,” the sheriff’s office said.

How the escape unfolded

The inmates at the New Orleans jail began yanking on a cell to pull it off track, and around 12:20 a.m. were able to break open a door, according to Hutson. While a corrections monitoring technician was watching, they exited the jail at around 1 a.m. after breaching the wall behind a toilet in the jail.

Some toiletries in a handicap cell were used to remove some bolts and fixtures, Chief of Corrections Jay Mallett said at the news conference Friday.

“We know that this could not be removed from the inside, so we are investigating that to see exactly who entered these areas, what kind of work was done, if there was work being done, and if this is an inside job,” Mallett said.

They were seen on video surveillance exiting a door where supplies are brought in, then they scaled a wall and ran across the interstate, according to Hutson.

More than seven hours later, they were discovered to be missing during a routine headcount Friday morning.

The deputy who was on duty notified jail leadership and the United States Marshals Service fugitive task force was notified before 9:30 a.m. – about an hour after the inmates were discovered missing. The New Orleans Police Department was also notified around the same time. It was a “fluid situation” as authorities worked to get a handle on 1,400 people in the facility, the sheriff said.

“When this went down, our first concern is to find out who these folks are, confirm, and then we’ve got to lock down the whole jail and…make sure nobody else is missing,” Hutson said. “We are investigating our own to find out exactly what happened and where those lapses were.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

CNN’s Jeremy Grisham contributed to this report.

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