Police on Friday captured one of the New Orleans parish inmates who escaped six weeks ago in a jailbreak Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry called the worst in recent state history.
Law enforcement agencies located and arrested 33-year-old Antoine Massey at a residence in New Orleans on Friday, authorities announced in a press release. The New Orleans Police Department was expected to give a press conference later Friday night.
Massey will be taken to a secure state correctional facility, Louisiana State Police said. At the time of his escape, Massey had been facing charges of domestic abuse battery involving strangulation, motor vehicle theft and a parole violation, authorities said, adding that additional charges may follow.
The Louisiana State Police Bureau of Investigations, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and the New Orleans Police Department located and arrested Massey on Friday, state police said.
Nine of the 10 Orleans Parish Prison inmates have now been recaptured following their May 16 jailbreak from the Orleans Justice Center, which went unnoticed for hours. Only one, Derrick Groves, remains on the lam. The group of inmates escaped by yanking open a faulty cell door, removing a toilet, crawling through a hole in the wall behind it and scaling a barbed wire fence in the early morning hours.
State and local officials have criticized the management of Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson, who has largely blamed the jailbreak on poor infrastructure and the inability to make needed improvements at the 10-year-old, $150 million facility.
Authorities have arrested at least 16 people who are accused of aiding the escape of the inmates.
Some of the inmates were found within the city’s famous French Quarter and others elsewhere within the state of Louisiana, while two of them were found in Texas following extensive surveillance efforts by the U.S. Marshals, authorities have said.
“They can keep running, but they can’t hide forever,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill previously told CBS News.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Kati Weis
contributed to this report.
