Louisiana authorities announced on Monday that they have recaptured three more inmates who escaped from the New Orleans city jail on May 16. This leaves two inmates still at large.
In a separate incident, a manhunt is currently underway in Arkansas for a former police chief who escaped from a prison in Calico Rock on Sunday, according to officials.
In New Orleans, Louisiana State Police reported that Lenton Vanburen, Leo Tate, and Jermaine Donald were apprehended, reducing the number of fugitives still at large from the audacious jailbreak to two. One inmate was arrested in Baton Rouge by local police, while two others were captured in the Huntsville area in Walker County, Texas, by authorities there, according to a post by Louisiana State Police on X.
A total of 10 escapees, many facing charges for violent crimes, including murder, broke out by exploiting a faulty cell door, squeezing through a hole behind a toilet, scaling a barbed-wire fence, and fleeing under cover of darkness. Their absence went unnoticed until a morning headcount, hours after their escape, due to multiple security lapses at the jail, city and state officials said.
The ongoing search for the remaining two inmates continues to focus on New Orleans, with over 200 local, state, and federal law enforcement officers involved, according to Louisiana State Police.
Hardin, who was serving a 30-year sentence for the 2017 murder of a Gateway City water employee and a 50-year sentence for the 1997 rape of a teacher at an elementary school, was discovered missing around 3:40 p.m., the Arkansas Department of Corrections said. A security camera captured Hardin wearing a makeshift outfit designed to mimic a law enforcement uniform as he fled through a secure entryway, pushing a cart loaded with materials.
“We feel confident based on information that we have, and just the experience of our tracking crews, that he is still fairly close to the unit,” Rand Champion, a Corrections Department spokesperson, told NBC affiliate KAIT.
