How 10 Inmates Escaped a New Orleans Jail — and Sparked a Multi-State Manhunt
How Just after midnight on Friday, a corrections technician at the Orleans Justice Center in New Orleans stepped away from his post to get food.
How But in the technician’s absence, inmates in Cell Delta 1006 sprang into action. Once out, they crept into a handicap-accessible cell, where a hole had been carved into the wall behind a metal toilet.
How One by one, the inmates squeezed through the small opening. In total, ten men escaped into the night. As they fled, they left a mocking message above the hole:
“To Easy LoL.”
How The escapees ranged in age from 19 to 42 and faced serious charges including murder, aggravated assault with a firearm, and domestic abuse battery. Authorities say the men appeared to have prepared extensively for the breakout—and may have had help.
How Investigators later discovered toiletries had been used to dismantle the toilet and sink, and a steel bar protecting the plumbing had apparently been cut using a tool. Around 1 a.m.—roughly 40 minutes after the breakout began—the men made their final move. They slipped through a loading dock door used for deliveries, then bolted into the darkness, jumping off the dock and scattering in their jail uniforms of gray, beige, and orange. One wore a blue hat, another had orange shoes. A camera caught one man stumbling over a bundle of fabric before vanishing from view.
The group scaled a fence lining Interstate 10, using blankets to shield themselves from barbed wire. They then ran across railroad tracks and several lanes of traffic, heading toward a nearby neighborhood where they shed their jumpsuits and disappeared.
It wasn’t until a routine head count at 8:30 a.m. that jail officials discovered the inmates were missing. Initial reports stated 11 had escaped, though the number was later revised to 10 after it was learned one inmate had been moved to another cell and not properly logged.
The escape triggered a large-scale manhunt involving more than 200 local, state, and federal law enforcement officers and alerts across seven neighboring states: Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
Public Alert Delayed by Hours
As the jail scrambled to secure the facility, the city of New Orleans remained unaware for nearly 10 hours that ten inmates—described as armed and dangerous—were on the loose.
The public wasn’t alerted until almost 11 a.m. Friday, and a citywide emergency notification wasn’t issued until 2:30 p.m.—hours after the sheriff and district attorney’s offices had learned of the escape.
Down the road, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams arrived at his office Friday morning completely unaware that individuals his office had helped convict were now fugitives.
“I walked into the office not knowing people we put in jail were out and potentially looking for us,” Williams said. Williams had personally prosecuted Groves in two separate trials—one of which ended in a mistrial and the other in a hung jury.
Some DA staff members were so concerned they left the city with their families out of fear of retaliation. Williams said his office learned about the escape around 11 a.m. and immediately began contacting victims and witnesses. Several of the escapees, he said, had a history of threatening witnesses to avoid prosecution.
Williams also reached out to the U.S. Marshals and Louisiana State Police around 11:13 a.m., only to learn they hadn’t yet been informed by the sheriff’s office. “This was a very dangerous situation made even worse by poor leadership and a lack of transparency,” he said.
Sheriff Susan Hutson countered that her office had notified federal and state authorities by 9:30 a.m. and that the New Orleans Police Department was informed shortly afterward. She called it a “fluid situation,” emphasizing the challenge of tracking over 1,400 inmates in a rapidly unfolding crisis.
“When this happened, our top priority was confirming who was missing, securing the facility, and ensuring no one else had escaped,” Hutson said. She also promised a full internal investigation into what went wrong.
Suspensions, Blame, and Breakdown
The fallout was swift. Three have since been suspended without pay pending further review. Officials did not specify the reasons for their suspensions.
Williams blasted the incident as “a complete failure of basic responsibilities” by jail administrators. Meanwhile, Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office Major Silas Phipps Jr. pointed to longstanding issues: staffing shortages, low pay, and poor infrastructure.
Others placed responsibility on the facility’s failing physical infrastructure. Chief of Corrections Jay Mallett said one-third of the jail’s security cameras were nonfunctional—including three in the unit from which the escape occurred. He also noted that the jail, though housing high-risk inmates, was operating under minimum-security conditions.
“This facility is not built to house these types of offenders,” Mallett said.
A Coordinated Plan—or Political Sabotage?
Sheriff Hutson described the breakout as a coordinated escape, and even suggested political motivations might be at play. “Why now?” she asked during a Friday press conference. “Right as we’re entering a re-election campaign for sheriff? It’s very suspicious.”
As of Friday evening, three of the 10 escapees had been recaptured: Kendell Myles, Dkenan Dennis, and Robert Moody.
Authorities have increased the reward for information leading to the capture of the remaining fugitives.
‘This Whole Thing Stinks’
Charles Ramsey, a former police chief and CNN security analyst, summed up the national reaction: “This whole thing stinks. There’s no excuse for this. None.”
As of now, the manhunt continues, and so does the political fallout, with residents, law enforcement, and officials demanding answers—and accountability.