Joe Yates
A convicted murderer is among the prisoners still at large after breaking out of prison in The Shawshank Redemption-esque style.
Surveillance footage has captured the moment the 10 convicts crept out of Orleans Justice Centre, in New Orleans, Louisiana, yesterday (May 16).
Three of the escapees have since been recaptured: Dkenan Dennis, Robert Moody and Kendell Myles. Convicted double murderer Derrick Groves, and 19-year-old Corey Boyd - who is yet to face his second-degree murder charge - are still at large.
Twenty-seven-year-old Groves was found guilty for second-degree murder charges of Jamar Robinson and Byron Jackson, who were tragically killed while celebrating Mardi Gras Day back in 2018.
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Speaking of Groves following his retrial last year, where he was found unanimously guilty by members of the jury and sentenced to life in prison, FBI Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Myrthil made a chilling remark.
He said: "There was no doubt in the minds of anyone involved in this case that Groves would continue his bloody rampage on the streets of New Orleans if he weren’t stopped.
"We hope this guilty verdict and the life sentence that accompanies it will give the community renewed confidence and hope in law enforcement.”
It took more than seven hours before prison officers discovered that the hardened criminals had broken out of confinement, with surveillance footage capturing the escape starting from inside the cell block at 12.22am.
At that time, several inmates were seen jarring open the sliding door to a cell, and their efforts continued for 21 minutes before the inmates were able to enter the cell - with the sole prison guard believed to have gone to grab some food.
Having entered the cell at 12.43am, the inmates peeled the toilet away from the wall - much like in the hit TV series Prison Break, with a picture of the toilet detailing the wild three-word message the criminals wrote behind the toilet.
Mocking authorities, they scrawled on the wall 'To easy LOL', with an arrow pointing down.
Taking to Facebook to explain how the inmates made-off, Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office wrote: "At 1:00 a.m., they exited the loading dock door adjacent to the pod and moved down a secure perimeter road toward the under-construction Phase III facility.
"At 1:19 a.m., they were seen scaling a fence between the OJC and Phase III using blankets to avoid injury from the barbed wire.
"From there, they fled across both directions of I-10 and into a nearby neighborhood, where OPSO investigators later recovered discarded clothing believed to belong to the escapees."
UNILAD has contacted Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office for comment.