A $200,000 reward is being offered to anyone able to give information leading to the capture of three Santa Ana Jail inmates that recently escaped from an Orange County jail. As previously reported, the three escaped inmates have violent charges against them including murder, torture, and two are linked to gangs. According to the Associated Press, one of the three inmates has been captured.
Bac Duong, 43, was located and captured in Santa Ana today, said Sheriff Sandra Hutchens. The other two, Jonathan Tieu, 20, and Hossein Nayeri, 37, still remain at large. NBC News announced that Duong turned himself in at 11:45 a.m. by telling a civilian on the streets that he’d like to surrender.
On January 22, Duong, Tieu and Nayeri escaped from the Santa Ana Jail in Orange County, California, after cutting a hole through a metal grate to gain access to plumbing tunnels, where they crawled through to the roof that was allegedly five stories high. The Associated Press reports that the inmates pushed barb wire aside and allegedly climbed down a rope that was made of bed sheets.
Further stated on NBC News, Nooshafarin Ravaghi, 44, a teacher at the Santa Ana jail has been arrested after allegedly showing Nayeri google earth images of the jail surroundings. Although it is unclear whether or not Ravaghi knew of the escape plan, she had developed a relationship with Nayeri.
The tools used during the escape have not been found and Ravaghi denies providing the inmates tools for the escape, Jeff Hallock shared, who is a spokesman for the Santa Ana Sheriff’s Department.
During the evening of the escape at the Santa Ana jail, an assault on a guard delayed the headcount. It wasn’t until 16 hours after the breakout that the jail realized three inmates were missing.
The Associates Press reports that this had been the first break-out from the Santa Ana jail since it was built in 1968. Hutchens was extremely upset of how long it took for anyone to realize the three inmates were gone.
Stated by Reuters, Hallock said that Duong was responsible for taking a utility van for a test drive on Sunday in south Los Angeles and he never returned. Hallock believes that the three inmates were living in the large white van and they are still on the lookout for the van and the two additional escaped inmates.
ABC News shares a statement from Hutchens, which raises questions about who helped the inmates escape from the Santa Ana jail, which is a maximum-security prison.
“It’s not something we think could have occurred with a ‘jail-made’ object. The question is: how do you get cutting tools inside a jail?”
Hutchens also mentioned that she does believe it would be difficult for the two escapees to make it out of the country, but they aren’t ruling it out. She also mentioned that investigators strongly believe that someone had to have assisted in the break-out.
Unfortunately, Hutchens said the jail did not have any valuable images from the cameras in and around the facility, therefore it is in the works for the Santa Ana jail to install high-quality cameras, as well as personal tracking devices.
“Two of the escapees have ties to a gang that operates in the city of Garden Grove and the city of Westminster,” Hutchens said. “So we have been focusing on that gang and as a result, we have made some arrests.”
Hutchens did say the inmates are considered a danger to the public. As mentioned already, if anyone knows the whereabouts of the two remaining escapees or has any helpful information, please contact the Santa Ana Sheriff’s Department at 714-628-7085 and a $200,000 reward will be provided to anyone assisting in the capture of the inmates.
[Orange County Sheriff’s Department via AP]
Two Of The Three Escaped Santa Ana Jail Inmates Still At Large, Possibly Living In Van, Arrests Made is an article from: The Inquisitr News