Louisiana police are looking for four prisoners who got out of jail over the weekend. On Monday, two of the prisoners were caught again.
At a news conference on Monday, Chief Jimmy Travis of the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office said that Travon Johnson, 21, and Avery Guidry, 19, were arrested Monday morning in Hammond, which is about 45 miles east of Baton Rouge.
They were found in a bin behind a Dollar General store, close to where Pumpkin Center Road and Old Baton Rouge Highway meet.
Travis said that there had been a call saying that two people matching the descriptions of two of the runaway prisoners had been found in the area. Police then set up a large perimeter around the area. He said that a drone was used to find the guys.
Over the weekend, Johnson, Guidry, Omarion Hookfin (19), and Jamarcus Cyprian (20) broke out of the Tangipahoa Parish Jail by taking advantage of holes in the walls.
Travis said that two got away in the afternoon on Saturday and the others got away on Sunday.
He said that the prisoners were able to break through a worn-out part of the chain-link fence that surrounds the prison. After that, they went up and over two walls.
They didn’t find out about the escape until about 3:30 p.m. Sunday, when a family member called the guard to say that two of the men had gone to a family member’s house to look for a place to stay.
The police then found out that two more had gotten away while they were looking into the case.
Travis told the press, “It’s very worrying.” “If the proper head counts had been conducted we would have known about it immediately.”
The escape was a “failure,” according to him, because there weren’t enough obstacles or guards to keep the prisoners in check. Also, he said, they are short-staffed and have a lot of staff change, so the people they do have are often not very experienced.
“We had a failure within that we hope to correct,” he told me. “Learn from our mistakes and move forward.”
He said that problems with the fences are being fixed and that more razor wire will be put up on the two outside walls.
“And if I have to go up there this afternoon or tomorrow and start stringing razor wire I will be happy to do so to ensure that we don’t have that situation again,” he added.
Travis said that the police are still looking for Hookfin and Cyprian, but they think the prisoners have left Tangipahoa Parish and warned anyone who helps them that they will be charged.
Johnson, Hookfin, and Guidry were all in jail for a murder that happened in Hammond in 2022. Cyprian, on the other hand, was there for armed robbery and weapon charges.
While Hoofkin was locked up in a different parish, he was also charged with aggravated abuse.
