Catherine E. Shoichet,Tim Hume and Chandler Friedman, CNN
A manhunt is underway for three inmates who cut through steel bars, made their way through plumbing tunnels and rappelled off a roof to break out of a maximum-security jail in California.
The group, which includes a man charged with murder, fled the prison on foot Friday. A press conference today was held to brief the public on the jailbreak. Investigators appealed to the Vietnamese community to come forward with information if they knew the whereabouts of the inmates and to contact authorities.
Pictured from left to right are the inmates who escaped from a Southern California prison: Bac Duong, Hossein Nayeri, and Jonathan Tieu. (Orange County Sheriff’s Department via AP)
Citing anonymous sources, KCAL reported that the men tied towels and bed sheets together to form a makeshift rope to rappel down from the roof and reach the street.
Jonathan Tieu, 20; Hossein Nayeri, 37; and Bac Tien Duong, 43, escaped from the Orange County Men’s Jail on Friday. Tieu is accused of murder, Nayeri of torture and kidnapping while Duong faces charges of attempted murder.
Hutchens described the men as “very dangerous” and urged anyone with information to call 911. Investigators have fanned out throughout southern California to search for the men, Hallock said.
The inmates were last seen inside the jail dormitory at 5 a.m. Friday but had gone missing by the time the next head count was done around 9 p.m., officials said.
They were housed in an area with about 60 other inmates, Hallock said, but at this point it’s unclear whether other prisoners saw the men escape.
Investigators believe they slipped out sometime shortly after the 5 a.m. head count, Hallock said.
They’re also looking into whether a disturbance at the jail before the second head count had anything to do with the escape, he said.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/24/us/california-escaped-inmates/
