New Orleans jail escapee apprehended from the razor wire
The Orleans Parish inmate who cut through a temporary jail tent with barbed wire, then scaled a fence and hurdled over razor wire to freedom on Monday has been caught, Sheriff Marlin Gusman's office announced Tuesday afternoon. Juan Vazquez, 25, was the third inmate in as many weeks to escape from the jail facilities.
Times-Picayune archiveIn February 2009, Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman shows off the holding cells during a tour of the newly reopened Orleans Parish Prison, the jail building located directly behind the courthouse.
Deputies found Vazquez about 4:15 p.m. hiding in the rafters of an abandoned Versailles Arms apartment complex on Peltier Street in eastern New Orleans, according to sheriff's spokesman Marc Ehrhardt.
Earlier Tuesday, Gusman elaborated on the brazen escape. He said Vazquez left behind blood, indicating he injured himself climbing over the razor wire or dropping to the ground.
Gusman said video surveillance did not capture a clear view of the escape. He said it appeared that Vazquez, who was being held on drug and weapons charges, dismantled a piece of a barbed wire fence inside one of five temporary jail tents, then cut through the tent using the fence wire.
He then somehow scaled a fence topped with Concertina wire, possibly by laying his jail scrubs over the top, although he didn't leave them behind, Gusman said.
Gusman said there's evidence that Vazquez may have broken a leg on the drop to the ground.
"There's some blood there," Gusman said. "Basically he undid part of the inner fence and was able to get at the fabric. He used part of the fence to make a slit, and he's a small guy."
Gusman said inmates sleep up close to the inner fence, which is erected inside the tents.
Vazquez escaped from the Temporary Housing Center between 4 and 5 a.m. Deputies realized it only at the morning roll call.
His escape followed similar flights by Reginald Young, 27, and Sherrick Brumfield, 22, who bolted from the new Temporary Detention Center, located north of the tents, on April 28.
According to video surveillance, the duo pulled away the yard's fencing and ran off.
Officers recaptured Young on the morning of April 29 with the help of his family. Brumfield was found the next day at a residence in the 1500 block of North Dorgenois Street.
Gusman said the escapes argue for urgency around construction of the new jail that is now underway. The tents were built by FEMA and house about 620 inmates, he said.
"They spend their time trying to figure out ways to defeat the system," Gusman said. "Both of them are temporary facilities. We don't make any excuses."
Just how deputies missed Vazquez dismantling the fence, cutting through a tent and scaling the outer fence is a matter under investigation, according to Ehrhardt.
Vazquez was being held on charges of marijuana possession, illegal carrying of a weapon while holding drugs, possession with intent to distribute heroin and unauthorized use of drug paraphernalia.
After his capture, he was booked on an additional charge of simple escape and taken to Orleans Parish Prison.
