11. Prisons in Downtown New Orleans
The 11 inmates, all armed and considered dangerous, fled from the New Orleans prison.
Scripps News
New Orleans authorities said it was May 16th that they were in a hurry after nearly 12 people fled the Orleans Parish Jail in New Orleans.
City prison officials discovered the prisoner was missing during “daily personnel” Friday morning, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said the inmates fled the prison around 1am this morning.
New Orleans Police Department Principal Anne Kirkpatrick described the situation as “urgent and serious” at an early afternoon press conference. Some of the fugitives she said were in prison “even for murder.”
Louisiana State Police have arrested one of the detainees in the French district, a busy tourist destination in New Orleans., Sheriff Susan Hutson said at a press conference at 3:30pm. Authorities found the prisoner under a parked car near the hotel’s Monteleone, she said.
Local and state police are working with the FBI and US Marshall to find the rest of the escape.
“Troopers continue to work closely with local, state and federal partners as the search remains active against the rest of the escape. Our priorities are maintaining the safety of our communities and the rapid unrest of still large populations,” state police said in a statement.
The Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
How did the prisoners escape?
Hutson suggested that people working within the criminal justice system may have helped prisoners escape.
“It’s not entirely possible, but almost impossible for anyone to get out of this facility without outside help,” she said. “We’re going to know exactly what happened.”
Houston also denounced the prison’s “flawed lock of cell.”
She said the inmate opened the cell door before 12:30am. We then found a wall open behind the toilet, and then we left the loading dock door and expanded it, driving along the nearby interstate.
“Sometimes afterwards, it shows that these detainees were assisted in escaping individuals within our department,” she said.
This is a developing story.
