Latest news with #HuntsvillePolice
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
News 19 crews: Heavy HPD presence near UAH early Sunday
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — News 19 crews said multiple officers with the Huntsville Police Department were seen near the campus of UAH Sunday morning. Between 3:30-4 a.m., News 19 crews arrived on the scene of a heavy police presence near Holmes Avenue. Crews said there was a car in a ditch outside of the National Weather Service building on Sparkman Drive with its doors open. News 19 crews also said Huntsville Police Officers had guns drawn, as well as a drone in the air. After our crews arrived on the scene, HPD detectives arrived. On the scene, HPD told News 19 the incident was an 'active investigation.' There is no official word on what the heavy police presence was for or if anyone was placed in custody. News 19 has reached out to HPD to learn more about this incident and will update you on air and online as information is provided. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Independent
28-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Watch: Moment two News Orleans prison escapees are recaptured by police after high speed chase
This is the moment two escaped prisoners are recaptured by police after a high speed chase. Bodycam footage from the Huntsville Police Department shows two New Orleans Parish jail escapees, Leo Tate, 31 and Jermaine Donald, 42, being taken into custody in Walker County, Texas on Monday (26 May). Officers can be seen pulling Tate from the back of a white SUV and Donald from the front passenger seat following the pursuit. The two were part of a larger group of eleven inmates who initially escaped from the Orleans Justice Center on May 16 by cutting a hole in the facility. With Tate and Donald's recapture, eight of the escapees have now been sent to a state correctional facility, but two still remain at large.
San Francisco Chronicle
27-05-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
New Orleans jail escapees caught following car chase in Texas; 2 inmates still on the run
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Only two of the 10 New Orleans jail escapees remain on the run Tuesday after police captured two men Monday following a high-speed pursuit in Texas and another man they found sitting on a bench in Louisiana thanks to an anonymous tip. Police dashboard and body camera footage, obtained by The Associated Press, appears to show two escapees — Leo Tate, 31, and Jermaine Donald, 42 — fleeing from police, reaching speeds up to 80 mph (129 kph), in a white SUV in Walker County, Texas. The vehicle zoomed past police cars, made a U-turn and headed the wrong way on a divided state highway. The men eventually pulled over and surrendered to police, who descended upon the stopped vehicle with their rifles drawn. 'They just ended up giving it up,' said Huntsville Police Lt. Wade Roberts. Additional details about the chase, including how long it lasted, were not immediately available. Back in Louisiana, an anonymous tip from a concerned citizen led to the capture of another fugitive. Lenton Vanburen Jr., 26, was found Monday evening sitting on a bench near a department store in Baton Rouge – approximately 78 miles (125 kilometers) from the jail he and nine others escaped from earlier this month, police said. Authorities also said Monday that five people were arrested for assisting Vanburen following the audacious jail escape through a hole behind a toilet. Three of those people share the same last name as Vanburen, including Lenton Vanburen Sr. All five were charged with accessory after the fact — a crime that involves harboring, concealing or aiding a felon who is avoiding arrest, trial, conviction or punishment — which is punishable by up to five years in prison. Still on the lam are Derrick Groves and Antoine Massey. Groves, 27, was convicted on two charges of second-degree murder and two charges of attempted second-degree murder last year for his role in the 2018 Mardi Gras Day shootings of two men. He also faces a charge of battery against a correctional facility employee, court records show. Massey, 33, has a lengthy criminal history. In March, he was booked on charges of motor vehicle theft and domestic abuse battery involving strangulation. He is also wanted by St. Tammany Parish authorities on suspicion of kidnapping and rape, law enforcement officials told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate. Authorities have urged the public to call police with any information that may lead to the capture of Groves and Massey, and are offering $20,000 in rewards for tips leading to their arrest. The bold New Orleans jailbreak occurred nearly two weeks ago, when the inmates yanked open a faulty cell door inside a jail, squeezed through a hole behind a toilet, scaled a barbed-wire fence and fled into the cover of darkness. Authorities didn't learn of the escape until a morning headcount, hours after the 10 men bolted for freedom. Graffiti was left on the wall at the scene of the crime, a message that read 'To Easy LoL,' with an arrow pointing to the gap where the toilet once was. Conditions had been deteriorating in the jail in the months before the escape, with unsupervised inmates smoking marijuana 'without fear of consequences' and fashioning weapons out of brooms, mops and buckets, according to a new report released Tuesday by an independent watchdog monitoring a 2013 federal consent decree that was intended to reform the jail. The monitor urged Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson to reestablish a high-security unit in the jail, noting the unrelenting violence among inmates that's made the facility 'not reasonably safe and secure.' Hutson, a progressive reformer, had abandoned the practice of housing certain inmates in a high-security setting after taking office in 2022. 'Many of the inmate-on-inmate assaults occur because staff allow inmates out of their cells and leave them unsupervised, or inmates are able to manipulate the locks on their cells to open them,' the monitors wrote in the report, which was written before this month's escape.
Hamilton Spectator
27-05-2025
- Hamilton Spectator
New Orleans jail escapees caught following car chase in Texas; 2 inmates still on the run
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — As police continue to scour Louisiana for the two remaining New Orleans jail escapees on the run, one fugitive was captured on Monday with the help of an anonymous tip and two others were arrested following a car chase in Texas. Police dashboard and body camera footage, obtained by The Associated Press, appears to show two escapees — Leo Tate, 31, and Jermaine Donald, 42 — fleeing from police, reaching speeds up to 80 mph (129 kph), in a white SUV in Walker County, Texas. The vehicle zoomed past police cars, made a U-turn and headed the wrong way on a divided state highway. The men eventually pulled over and surrendered to police, who descended upon the stopped vehicle with their rifles drawn. 'They just ended up giving it up,' said Huntsville Police Lt. Wade Roberts. Additional details about the chase, including how long it lasted, were not immediately available. Back in Louisiana, an anonymous tip from a concerned citizen led to the capture of another fugitive. Lenton Vanburen Jr., 26, was found Monday evening sitting on a bench near a department store in Baton Rouge – approximately 78 miles (125 kilometers) from the jail he and nine others escaped from earlier this month, police said. Authorities also said Monday that five people were arrested for assisting Vanburen following the audacious jail escape through a hole behind a toilet. Three of those people share the same last name as Vanburen, including Lenton Vanburen Sr. All five were charged with accessory after the fact — a crime that involves harboring, concealing or aiding a felon who is avoiding arrest, trial, conviction or punishment — which is punishable by up to five years in prison. Still on the lam are Derrick Groves and Antoine Massey. Groves, 27, was convicted on two charges of second-degree murder and two charges of attempted second-degree murder last year for his role in the 2018 Mardi Gras Day shootings of two men. He also faces a charge of battery against a correctional facility employee, court records show. Massey, 33, has a lengthy criminal history. In March, he was booked on charges of motor vehicle theft and domestic abuse battery involving strangulation. He is also wanted by St. Tammany Parish authorities on suspicion of kidnapping and rape, law enforcement officials told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate. Authorities have urged the public to call police with any information that may lead to the capture of Groves and Massey, and are offering $20,000 in rewards for tips leading to their arrest. The bold New Orleans jailbreak occurred nearly two weeks ago, when the inmates yanked open a faulty cell door inside a jail, squeezed through a hole behind a toilet, scaled a barbed-wire fence and fled into the cover of darkness. Authorities didn't learn of the escape until a morning headcount, hours after the 10 men bolted for freedom. Graffiti was left on the wall at the scene of the crime, a message that read 'To Easy LoL,' with an arrow pointing to the gap where the toilet once was. City and state officials have pointed to multiple security lapses in the jail. Conditions had been deteriorating in the jail in the months before the escape, with unsupervised inmates smoking marijuana 'without fear of consequences' and fashioning weapons out of brooms, mops and buckets, according to a new report released Tuesday by an independent watchdog monitoring a 2013 federal consent decree that was intended to reform the jail. The monitor urged Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson to reestablish a high-security unit in the jail, noting the unrelenting violence among inmates that's made the facility 'not reasonably safe and secure.' Hutson, a progressive reformer, had abandoned the practice of housing certain inmates in a high-security setting after taking office in 2022. 'Many of the inmate-on-inmate assaults occur because staff allow inmates out of their cells and leave them unsupervised, or inmates are able to manipulate the locks on their cells to open them,' the monitors wrote in the report, which was written before this month's escape. ——- Associated Press writers Jim Mustian in New York and Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
CNN
27-05-2025
- General
- CNN
Two escapees from the New Orleans jailbreak remain at large. One has a lot of experience being on the run
CrimeFacebookTweetLink Follow More than a week after 10 prisoners conducted a daring escape out a bathroom wall in a New Orleans jail, two inmates remain on the run, prompting an intensified search across state lines. Authorities on Monday captured three escapees: Lenton Vanburen, Leo Tate and Jermaine Donald. Tate and Donald were the first of the escaped inmates to be found outside Louisiana. They were arrested in Texas after what the Huntsville Police Department described as a high-speed chase involving multiple law enforcement agencies. Now with eight escapees recaptured, the manhunt continues for the last two remaining inmates –– Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves –– both of whom should be considered armed and dangerous, authorities say. Here's what we know about them. Antoine Massey is no stranger to breakouts. The 33-year-old has a history of escapes dating back to 2007, when he broke out of a New Orleans juvenile detention center after being arrested for armed robbery and aggravated assault, according to A broken lock at the center allowed Massey, then 15, and five other juveniles to access metal shackles, which they used to shatter a window and escape, reported. The teen stayed on the run for more than two weeks before authorities found him on an interstate in east New Orleans. Two years later, Massey faced a charge of attempted simple escape in Orleans Parish, according to online court records. CNN reached out to the parish sheriff's office for more details about the circumstances around the charge. At 27, Massey and another inmate broke out of a detention center in northern Louisiana in broad daylight by cutting and slipping under a chain-link fence in the exercise yard, Chief James Mardis of the Morehouse Parish Sheriff's Office told CNN last week. The two men were believed to have been picked up by a vehicle with Texas tags that was seen in the area. Massey was caught in Texas later that day. Massey has also twice cut off electronic ankle monitors, according to Matt Dennis, an employee with the company that operates the monitors who spoke to CNN affiliate WDSU. Court records from late 2023 alleged Massey had 'tampered and/or removed the court-ordered GPS monitor.' Dennis told CNN affiliate WVUE he was 'astonished' that someone with Massey's history of escape was being held on the first floor of the New Orleans jail. 'There isn't an ounce of this man's history that doesn't say 'escape',' Dennis said. Chief Mardis, who shared details of the inmate's 2019 escape, said it was no shock to learn of the current breakout: 'It didn't surprise me, because (Massey) was known for that.' It's still unclear how big of a role Massey may have played in planning this month's jailbreak, which the Orleans Parish sheriff has described as a 'coordinated effort.' The 10 inmates escaped through a hole in the wall behind a metal toilet in a handicapped cell. The escapees appear to have scrawled 'To Easy LoL' on the cell wall. The jailbreak has been blamed on a combination of faulty locks, stolen blankets and possible help from inside the jail. As of Tuesday morning, it is believed that at least 13 people helped the 10 escaped inmates – either before or after the May 16 jailbreak. The growing number of arrests provides new insight into just how elaborate and far-reaching the planned jailbreak may have been. Sterling Williams, a maintenance worker who turned off the water to the toilet, is charged with aiding the escape. Massey purportedly threatened to shank Williams if he did not turn off the water, according to an affidavit, but Williams' attorney later told the Associated Press that one of the jail's deputies asked Williams to fix the toilet because it was overflowing. 'Yes, someone said they would shank him … (but) they didn't say it in a particularly threatening manner. They said it more as an aside,' Michael Kennedy, the attorney for Williams, told the AP. Kennedy argues Williams was only doing his job and that jail officials are 'trying to use him as a scapegoat to minimize their own embarrassment' over the breakout. The other escaped inmate who's still at large is 27-year-old Derrick Groves, who was being held at the New Orleans jail after being convicted near the end of last year in the killing of two people on Mardi Gras day in 2018. Groves was found to be one of the gunmen who opened fire with AK-47-style assault rifles 'on what should have been a joyous Mardi Gras family gathering,' the district attorney's office said. Groves was found guilty of two charges of second-degree murder and two charges of attempted second-degree murder, charges that carry a life sentence, according to the district attorney. Groves' aunt, Jasmine Groves, told CNN affiliate WDSU that she wants her nephew to turn himself in and that she hopes deadly force will not be used against him. She said she's seen police cars and helicopters around her and other family members' homes since the breakout.
