A Louisiana security officer is suspected of helping three teen inmates escape from a youth detention center Saturday.
The escape comes two weeks after a jail boss in neighboring Alabama helped a convict go missing for 11 days before shooting herself dead as police closed in on the pair, who were involved in a relationship.
The Red River Parish Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook that it was notified shortly before 7 a.m. that the three inmates, all serving time for felonies, broke out of the Ware Youth Detention Center in Coushatta, Louisiana. The facility is about 40 miles south of Shreveport in the northwest corner of the state, and about 50 miles from the Texas border.
“Oncoming day shift employees discovered that three male juvenile residents, with help from a female WYC security guard, had escaped the juvenile detention facility approximately four hours earlier,” the Red River Parish Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook.
The post said that video surveillance captured security guard Victoria Tune, 21, driving the three teens from the detention center in a white 2010 Pontiac G6 with a Louisiana license plate and a missing rear bumper.
The escapees are TyJuan Lafitte, 17, serving time for first-degree attempted murder; Jeremiah Durham, 17, serving time for armed robbery, and 15-year-old Na’Varaya Lane, for attempted second-degree murder.
All three were wearing orange jumpsuits when they fled. The direction they traveled was not clear.
A warrant was issued for Tune in connection with the escape.
“For people who are close to Tori, know that this is completely out of character for her,” a woman named Amber Tilly wrote in response to the sheriff’s post.
“Instead of jumping to conclusions so quickly, give the authorities and the families who are involved enough time to gather all the facts. I grew up with her so I’m very confident when I say that this is very out of character for her.”
Multiple others agreed with the comment. The characterization echoed statements by those who knew Vicky White, the decorated jail boss in Alabama who went on the lam with inmate Casey White in a case that ended with the inmate recaptured and Vicky White dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Monday.