2 of 3 escaped inmates believed still in region

The inmates were last seen at 5am Friday at the Orange County Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana.

The three inmates, 20-year-old Jonathan Tieu, 43-year-old Bac Duong and 37-year-old Hossein Nayeri were discovered after a nightly inmate count at Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana, California.

Authorities in Southern California made a plea Monday for the community’s help in catching three inmates – including at least two alleged Vietnamese gang members – who made an elaborate escape from a maximum-security jail this weekend.

Investigators have fanned out throughout southern California to search for the men, Hallock said. The Times adds that there is one employee per 33 inmates; the escapees weren’t found until around 9 p.m. Friday, hours and hours after they escaped.

The priority was finding the men who could be armed and risky, but a probe also was underway to see if they had any help from inside or outside the Orange County Men’s Central Jail, authorities said.

“They may be ingrained in that community”, Hallock said.

Tieu, Duong and Nayeri are believed to be unsafe and all were awaiting trial for separate violent felonies, authorities said. Insisting he had not contacted them since his escape, they said they did not believe he would hurt anyone, despite his murder charge.

Three inmates had a 15-hour head start before authorities realized they were gone from their Orange County cell. Cutting their way through additional half-inch-thick steel bars, the trio made their way to an unguarded area of the roof of the four-story building, where they apparently moved aside some razor wire and rappelled to the ground using elaborately braided ropes made from linens, authorities said.

Then they allegedly rappelled down with makeshift rope and running away on foot.

The inmates vanished early Friday in a jail break eerily similar to the escape of two inmates from an upstate NY prison last summer. “I’m still sure Putin is the richest man in Europe, one of the richest men in the world”, Belkovsky said. “I take this situation very seriously and the men and women of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department will not rest until all three men are captured”.

“I’m scared because these people are risky, and they may grab you or try to take your vehicle”, said a woman in the city of Westminster who would only identify herself as Carmen.

Authorities at this point are relying heavily on community tips and vilgalence to help them find the suspected criminals.

Motion sensor cameras – available for $55 and often used as baby monitors – can be installed along interior tunnels and pipes to catch inmates, Tamez said. More thorough searches are done randomly, he said, declining to give more details. It holds 900 men and is in Santa Ana, about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

“We’re talking about breaching, in some places, significant amounts of steel, rebar and metal”, Hallock said. More involved searches are done randomly, he said, but declined to be more specific. The third was charged with shooting into a house full of people. Assignment to a large, busy room likely made it easier for them to avoid detection, Horn said. Rewards for information leading to their capture total about $50,000.

Duong, who is ineligible for bail due to an immigration hold, had been in custody since December 2015 on charges of possession of a firearm, possession of stolen property, vehicle theft, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and shooting an at inhabited dwelling.

Nayeri has been charged with kidnapping and torture in connection with the abduction of a marijuana dispensary owner in 2012.

Prosecutors said Nayeri and two other men used a blowtorch to torture a licensed pot dealer in the mistaken belief he had money buried in the desert.