Five New Orleans area residents have now been arrested and charged with assisting some of the 10 prisoners who made a successful breakout from the Orleans Parish Jail on May 16. The latest two reported arrests followed an update from Louisiana State Police about the third being arrested Thursday.
Louisiana State Police have warned area residents that assisting an escaped prisoner will lead to criminal charges. Five of the 10 who broke out of the jail remain at large.
At least one of the prisoners captured following the breakout was nabbed after being identified by a regional surveillance camera system using an artificial intelligence facial recognition program, reported CNN.
A jail employee was earlier arrested for assisting the breakout. Four other jail employees were suspended as the investigation developed.
The local District Attorney is challenging embattled Sheriff Susan Hutson for apparently failing to order a forensic screening of the jail area involved in the breakout. Local WSDU reported that District Attorney Jason Williams discovered that no forensic screening was performed in the jail area following the escape.
He told reporters on Thursday that a supervisor confirmed the department's crime lab had not been requested to screen the area. That screening was then immediately conducted.
Hutson suspended her reelection campaign in light of the difficulties presented by a mass breakout of the parish jail.
Williams, according to WSDU, has issued subpoenas to the sheriff and other department employees for a range of information and documents surrounding the breakout.
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