The final of the ten New Orleans jail escapees has been returned to jail, following a tip and a law enforcement canine.
In Georgia, Derrick Groves, aged 27, was captured by authorities on Wednesday at about 1 p.m., ending nearly five months of evasion. Police located him in a residence along Honeysuckle Lane in the southwestern area of Atlanta.
Deputy Chief Kelley Collier of the Atlanta Police Department stated that the city’s SWAT team used “multiple gas canisters” to compel Groves to exit the home, as reported by The Advocate.
Groves was found by a Clayton County Police canine, who alerted law enforcement to the home’s crawlspace, according to Fox 8 Live.
“They instructed him to emerge and give up. When he failed to comply, they deployed a canine,” explained Rafael Goyeneche, the Metropolitan Crime Commission’s president, to FOX 8.
“Upon entering the basement and initially finding nothing, they uncovered boards nailed over a section of the wall. After removing these, they found a crawl space and released tear gas into it, prompting Groves’ coughing to be heard,” he continued.
It is unclear how long Groves was hiding at the Atlanta home.
Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams confirmed that Groves was apprehended without any injuries, an outcome that “offers long-awaited tranquility to the victims, their families, witnesses who provided testimony, the assistant district attorneys involved in the prosecution, and the citizens of New Orleans,” reported The Advocate.
Previously, as CrimeOnline reported, a group of 10 inmates escaped from the Orleans Parish Justice Center in Louisiana roughly five months prior, on May 16.
The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office said inmates tampered with a defective cell door, which broke open, then breached a wall behind a toilet and fled via a supply dock door. The inmates are also believed to have scaled a wall before crossing the interstate.
Groves was the last of the 10 to be found and arrested. He can be seen in a video smiling and blowing a kiss to cameras as he is placed in a police car.
Officials say that there were other people in the house where Groves was found. An extensive investigation concerning all those who assisted Groves is underway, Waillimas said.
Fifteen pounds of marijuana, a pistol, and a rifle magazine were also found by police, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said at the media release on Wednesday.
This will likely bring additional charges out of Georgia against Groves, according to The Advocate.
The Atlanta Police Department, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Marshals Service, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Apprehension Team, and the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation all worked to apprehend the escapee and four-time convicted killer.
[Feature Photo via Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office]
