Authorities in Louisiana are searching for four inmates who escaped from the Tangipahoa Parish Jail, just north of New Orleans — and three of the four are homicide suspects, the parish sheriff’s office says.
Sheriff Daniel Edwards said in a statement that they got out through the jail’s perimeter fence during recreation time on the yard.
Later inspection showed that “a section of the fence was … vulnerable and easily maneuvered in such a way that a small statured body could slide through.”
The three homicide suspects were identified as Omarion Hookfin, 19, of Hammond, La.; Avery Guidry, also 19, of Natalbany, La.; and Travon Johnson, 21, also from Natalbany.
The fourth escapee was Jamarcus Cyprian, 20, of Amity, La., the office said.
Hookfin, Guidry and Johnson were behind bars for their alleged roles in a 2022 homicide in Hammond, and Cyprian was doing time on armed robbery and weapons charges, the office said, with more time tacked on for alleged aggravated battery while he was locked up in Catahoula Parish.
CBS New Orlans affiliate WWL-TV reports that the counts against Johnson, Hookfin and Guidry stemmed from a 2022 home invasion in Hammond that ended with a 33-year-old man dead and his 12-year-old daughter hospitalized.
