OPELOUSAS, La. (AP) — Authorities hunted Saturday for the last of three inmates who escaped from a Louisiana jail after removing concrete blocks from a deteriorating wall.
“We would prefer that he surrender himself peaceably,” St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby J. Guidroz said in a statement, “but we will not rest until he is captured.”
Detectives and SWAT officers were following leads Saturday in pursuit of 24-year-old Keith Eli, who remained at large three days after he and two other inmates escaped the parish jail in southwestern Louisiana, said Maj. Mark LeBlanc, a spokesman for the sheriff. Eli had been jailed on a charge of second-degree murder.
One of the escapees, 24-year-old Johnathan Jevon Joseph, was captured Friday following a brief chase. LeBlanc said investigators following a tip found Joseph, who was jailed on charges of rape and other crimes, hiding out at a home. Joseph ran to a nearby storage shed, where he surrendered after being cornered, LeBlanc said.
The third escapee, 26-year-old Joseph Allen Harrington, killed himself with a hunting rifle Thursday after police found him at a home and used a loudspeaker to urge him to come out, said Port Barre Police Chief Deon Boudreaux. Before his escape, Harrington had faced several felony charges, including home invasion.
In May of this year, another mass escape occurred in New Orleans, where 10 inmates broke out through a hole behind a toilet, leaving a message that read 'To Easy LoL.' All 10 were eventually recaptured after extensive searches.
According to Sheriff Guidroz, the inmates discovered a degrading part of an upper wall and managed to remove the mortar holding the wall’s concrete blocks together over time. This allowed them to slip through the wall. They then used sheets to scale over the jail’s outer wall, drop onto a first-floor roof, and lower themselves to the ground.
Guidroz stated that an internal investigation into the escape will be conducted, emphasizing the pressing need for improved jail safety.
