Ten people in custody at the New Orleans jail, including a man convicted of four killings, escaped early on Friday morning.
The escapes prompted local, state and federal officials to launch a “full-scale search operation” for nine who remained at large early on Friday evening – and to warn community members to be on the lookout for “armed and dangerous” individuals.
“Folks, take it seriously,” the New Orleans police superintendent, Anne Kirkpatrick, said at a news conference late on Friday morning. Sheriff Susan Hutson, whose agency operates the jail, said: “We are urging the public to remain alert.”
At first, officials said 11 people had escaped. But during a press conference on Friday afternoon, the New Orleans sheriff clarified that one man, who authorities thought had escaped, was in a different cell.
The 10 inmates who escaped from the Orleans Justice Center (OJC) are accused of a variety of crimes, including weapons charges, attempted murder, domestic abuse and murder. The sheriff confirmed that one inmate had been caught as of Friday.
Louisiana state police said on X that they had caught one of the alleged escapers after a brief foot chase in New Orleans’s well-known French Quarter neighborhood.
The inmates reportedly tore off the toilet-sink appliance in one of the cells, escaped through there and exited the facility through a loading dock, security camera footage reveals, Hutson said.
While the sheriff said “defective locks” were a factor in the escape, she added that “there’s no way” the inmates could have left the facility without “a lapse in security”.
“It’s almost impossible, not completely, but almost impossible for someone to get out of this facility without help,” she said.
Among the escapers was Derrick Groves, who in October was convicted of fatally shooting two people while wounding two others in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood on 13 February 2018 as the city celebrated Fat Tuesday. Jurors found him guilty of second-degree murder and attempted murder, and – though murder carries mandatory life imprisonment – he had evidently not been sentenced in the case, court records show.
Separately, after those convictions at trial, Groves pleaded guilty to two reduced charges of manslaughter in connection with a double slaying in 2017 – and an unrelated charge of battery of a correctional facility employee filed against him in April 2024.
The inmates purportedly escaped at midnight, but facility guards did not notice they were gone until 8.30am local time during a routine headcount.
Hours after officials announced the escape, a criminal justice source provided the Guardian with a photo showing a window-size hole in the wall of an OJC cell leading to the outside. Handwritten messages left around the hole included ones reading “Fuck OPSO”, referring to the Orleans parish sheriff’s office in charge of the jail, and “suck my dick OJC”.
“We innocent,” read another message. Another, which was misspelled, had an arrow pointing down to the hole in the cell wall and read: “To easy lol.” Still another said, “Catch us when you can.”
Authorities did not immediately comment on the photo, which numerous media outlets had reported on by Friday evening.
Officials did not take any questions at the news conference but said the FBI, US marshals and state troopers were helping the city’s police department and sheriff’s deputies search for the escapers. Louisiana’s attorney general, Liz Murrill, said her office would “thoroughly review” exactly how the breakout occurred once everyone had been captured.
Hutson added: “We are launching a full investigation to determine how this escape occurred, including reviewing facility protocols, staff performance and physical security measures … Any lapses or failures that contributed to this incident will be addressed swiftly and with full accountability.”
The Orleans Justice Center was previously known as the Orleans Parish prison. It has long been the subject of scrutiny by the justice department over allegations of civil rights violations, leading to a reform pact with the federal government in 2016. An independent monitor tracks the jail’s compliance with the reform pact, which is known as a consent decree.
Donald Trump’s administration recently ordered a review of all consent decrees affecting law enforcement agencies in the US, calling them “political handcuffs that make aggressively enforcing the law impossible”. The administration said the goal of the review was to determine whether it made sense to modify, rescind or move “to conclude such measures that unduly impede the performance of law enforcement functions”.
Murill told WDSU that Friday’s events did not “bode well” for the jail’s consent decree.
Friday’s escapes occurred less than two weeks after New Orleans voters reapproved – by the thinnest of margins – a property tax funding maintenance, staffing and certain programs at the sheriff’s office in charge of the city’s jail. An initial count reportedly found the tax renewal passed by two votes after more than 24,000 ballots had been cast. A recount subsequently found the tax renewal passed by four votes.
A statement that Hutson provided to the news media after the recount promised she would ensure her office would “continue to ensure our deputies are well-equipped and provide transformative justice so that detainees leave better than they came”.
“Progress is evident more every day,” the statement said.
This article was amended on 16 May 2025 to update the number of people who escaped as well as how many had been caught, based on newer information.
Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans contributed reporting
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