Police are searching for seven inmates, aged 19 to 42, on the loose who escaped from a New Orleans jail last week, along with three recaptured fugitives.
Officials have increased the reward for the capture of the seven men as the manhunt has reached its fourth day.
One of the three recaptured men had been located thanks to a public tip, the FBI confirmed.
Louisiana State Police said in a statement that one escapee had been captured in the New Orleans' famed French Quarter. The inmate was found hiding underneath a car in a hotel garage.
Ongoing Search for Orleans Parish Escapees – Reward Increased!To encourage valuable tips, the ATF, in collaboration with Crimestoppers GNO, is now offering a $5,000 reward, in addition to the $2,000 reward from Crimestoppers and the $5,000 reward from the FBI. pic.twitter.com/WiuB892zAH
— LA State Police (@LAStatePolice) May 17, 2025
While some of those escaped have yet to appear before a court, the men face a variety of charges for violent crimes, including aggravated assault, domestic abuse battery and murder.
Derrick Groves, one of the wanted men, was arrested for the shooting deaths of Jamar Robinson and Byron Jackson on Mardi Gras in 2018, CBS affiliate WWL-TV reported. Family members of one of the victims told the site that they were concerned Groves would target them.
"We didn't know what was going to happen, we didn't know how Derrick Groves felt ... whether he was coming for us, we didn't know," a relative of Robinson said.
The Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office confirmed that three members of jail staff have been suspended without pay as internal investigations seek to understand how the men escaped.
How did the fugitives escape the New Orleans jail?
The inmates’ escape was discovered at approximately 8:30 a.m. during routine checks. They are believed to have escaped just after midnight.
The men escaped after breaking through a wall in the bathroom, scaling a wall and running across the interstate. Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office released footage of their escape.
The men scrawled messages at the site of the breached wall, including one reading "to easy, LOL." [SIC].
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said on Sunday her office's "main priority remains recovering the prisoners, protecting the public, securing and stabilizing the facility staff, and building."
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said at a news conference on Sunday: "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.”
REUTERS contributed to this report.