The Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office has released surveillance video that shows inmates orchestrating a jail break from the parish jail early Friday.
Video shows an inmate jerking violently on a locked cell door around 12:23 a.m., eventually breaking it open.
"A Correctional Monitoring Technician in the Control Module was present, but the detainees were able to breach a wall behind a toilet in their housing unit which was out of view," according to the sheriff's office.
Three sheriff’s office employees have been suspended.
Shortly after 1 a.m., the escapees made their way out via the loading dock, scaled a wall, then ran across the Pontchartrain Expressway.
It was not for another seven-and-a-half hours that the sheriff's office became aware of the jail break, when a routing head count at 8:30 a.m. alerted them to the missing inmates.