Police in Louisiana reported Monday that they had apprehended two of the four inmates who escaped from jail over the weekend, unbeknownst to the guards who were supposed to be watching them.
Omarion Hookfin, 19, Avery Guidry, 19, Jamarcus Cyprian, 20, and Travon Johnson, 21, all incarcerated at the Tangipahoa Parish Jail, escaped on Saturday and Sunday through a weak portion of the jail’s chain-link fence, according to Chief Jimmy Travis of the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office during a news conference Monday.
The jail’s administrators were unaware of the breakouts until they received a phone call Sunday afternoon from a family member of one of the escapees, Travis said. The family informed them that two detainees escaped Saturday and arrived at a relative’s house in the middle of the night searching for a place to stay, Travis said.
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According to the head, two other convicts had already escaped before jail workers intervened. “This is quite troubling. “If proper head counts had been conducted, we would have known about it right away,” Travis added.
According to the chief, investigators quickly located Johnson and Guidry after getting a call from someone who claimed to have seen them.
According to authorities, the couple, who were caught in connection with a 2022 killing in Hammond, Louisiana, were hiding in a dumpster near a Dollar General shop about 22 miles away from jail.
According to police records, Hookfin, who was also detained in connection with the same 2022 homicide, and Cyprian, who was serving time for armed robbery and weapon charges, are still at large and are most likely outside of Tangipahoa Parish, Travis said.
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Travis stated that the investigation into the breakout is still ongoing as investigators analyze all evidence and clues, but that it appears the suspects broke through a rusted section of the fence during leisure time.
“Apparently they made their way, they hid, and after dark, they went under a wall and were able to scale two fences and get away,” Travis said of the Saturday escape.
Travis could not immediately say which detainees escaped when only that two fled on Saturday and two fled on Sunday. The chief agreed that the facility was understaffed and that some employees were inexperienced, but he claimed that was no explanation for what occurred.
“We had a failure within that we have to correct and move forward,” Travis stated.