The manhunt continues after 10 inmates escaped from a New Orleans jail on May 16 by fleeing through a hole behind a toilet.
The inmates escaped from the Orleans Parish jail, a correctional facility where 1,400 people are being held, while the lone guard watching them went to get food.
The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office said at least one of the steel bars protecting plumbing fixtures “appeared to have been intentionally cut using a tool.”
After exiting through the hole behind the toilet, the inmates scaled a barbed wire fence, quickly shed their uniforms, changed into regular clothes and fled into the dark.
The absence of the inmates was not reported until a routine morning headcount — more than seven hours later. Many of those inmates, ranging in age from 19 to 42, have been charged with or convicted of violent offences such as murder. As of publication time, four have since been apprehended and six remain at large.
The manhunt for the six remaining inmates entered its fifth day on Tuesday, with FBI Special Agent Jonathan Trapp announcing that the FBI is offering US$10,000 per inmate instead of the $5,000 previously announced. Authorities are searching for Antoine Massey, Lenton Vanburen, Jermaine Donald, Leo Tate, Derrick Groves and Corey Boyd.
Trapp said he believes that members of the public may be aiding the men and authorities will arrest those found aiding and abetting the escaped inmates.
The FBI reward is in addition to $5,000 rewards offered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and by CrimeStoppers.
The manhunt continues for the six inmates who escaped from the Orleans Justice Center.
Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office
One of the escaped inmates was captured based on a tip from the public, according to a statement from the FBI.
It was a tip from the public that led #FBI agents to one of the escaped inmates. We still need your help to locate the seven still on the run, if you have any information call 1-800-Call-FBI or submit a digital tip at https://t.co/HdG6UEyYpx pic.twitter.com/s2NwM8HCCb
— FBI New Orleans (@FBINewOrleans) May 17, 2025
The latest arrest came late Monday when a fourth fugitive, Gary Price, was taken into custody. He was taken to a state facility outside of the New Orleans area and booked with additional counts of simple escape and possession of a Schedule II drug.
Price was initially jailed on a May 6 count of attempted first-degree murder along with six domestic offences last month, including aggravated second-degree battery, aggravated assault with a firearm and domestic abuse battery. He hadn’t entered a plea before he escaped the Orleans Parish Correctional Facility last week.
Fourth Fugitive Arrested from OPSO Inmate Escape
Law enforcement agencies working collectively to locate the inmates who escaped from the Orleans Parish Correctional Facility on May 16, 2025, have arrested 21-year-old Gary C. Price. pic.twitter.com/SLwdCREXVu— LA State Police (@LAStatePolice) May 20, 2025
Soon after the escape, one of the men, Kendall Myles, 20, was apprehended in the French Quarter after a brief foot chase.
Myles and the other two men who were captured earlier, Robert Moody, 21, and Dkenan Dennis, 24, were taken by helicopter to a state correctional facility outside the New Orleans area, Louisiana State Police said.
Dennis had been charged with armed robbery with a firearm and illegal carrying of a weapon during a crime of violence, according to Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill. Moody was facing a weapons charge as well as charges of attempted second-degree battery and obstruction.
Murrill said both men will face additional charges for the escape.
Authorities have confirmed that they have arrested an Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office employee in connection with the escape of the inmates, according to a statement from the Louisiana attorney general’s office on Tuesday.
Sheriff Susan Hutson has said she believes the jailbreak was an inside job and told reporters last week that her agency had suspended three employees pending an investigation.
“It’s almost impossible, not completely, but almost impossible for anybody to get out of this facility without help,” Hutson said of the Orleans Justice Center.
A maintenance worker at the Orleans Parish jail was arrested after authorities said he helped facilitate the jailbreak, according to NBC News.
Sterling Williams, 33, is accused of cutting off the water so the inmates could pull the toilet from the wall, Murrill said in a press release. He is currently being held at Plaquemines Parish Detention Center on charges of principle to simple escape and malfeasance in office.
The guard who left to get food was not the employee arrested, said Lester Duhe, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office.
Police released a photo last week to show a hole in the wall behind the toilet with the phrase “To Easy Lol” and “We Innocent” written above it.
Prisoners at the Orleans Parish jail escaped through in the wall behind a toilet.
Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office
“Williams admitted to agents that one of the escapees advised him to turn the water off in the cell where the inmates escaped from,” Murrill said in a news release. “Instead of reporting the inmate, Williams turned the water off as directed allowing the inmates to carry out their scheme to successfully escape.”
Since the escape, Hutson has pointed to long-standing deficiencies such as faulty locks and staffing shortages. But a growing number of state and local officials have said blame for the escape rests squarely on her for failing her responsibility to keep inmates locked up.
In a separate statement, Murrill said on Sunday that her office’s “main priority remains recovering the prisoners, protecting the public, securing and stabilizing the facility staff, and building.”
New Orleans Police Department Supt. Anne Kirkpatrick warned that the fugitives are dangerous in a news conference on May 16 but also urged the public “not to panic.”
Hutson said the men were able to get out of the Orleans Justice Center because of “defective locks.” She said she has continuously raised concerns about the locks to officials and, as recently as this week, advocated for money to fix the aged infrastructure.
“This massive jailbreak could be the largest jailbreak in the history of the state, and it never should have happened. The public deserves to know who, what and how this happened,” Gov. Jeff Landry said at the Sunday news conference.
Landry said an audit of the jail by the Department of Corrections will be done by the end of the week. He said everyone in the criminal justice system needs to be held accountable “except for the police, who seem to be doing their job.”
Landry also spoke about the delays in bringing charges against people accused of crimes, prosecutions and sentencing as factors that contribute to jail populations.
He blamed the escape on what he called a “progressive justice system,” saying that “there is also no excuse for the way these cases are currently being mismanaged in our criminal justice system.”
— With files from The Associated Press