Jonathan Tieu, 20, and Hossein Nayeri, 37, were captured just before 9 a.m. in San Francisco, police said. Bac Duong, who was in the country despite a deportation order, turned himself in a day earlier.
“The entire state can breathe a sigh of relief because we have the other two dangerous individuals back in custody where they should be,” Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said in a press conference. She later described the ordeal as “one of a sheriff’s worst nightmares.”
All three men were in the Orange County Central Men’s Jail awaiting trial on charges in violent crimes: Nayeri for kidnapping and torture, Tieu for murder, and Duong, 43, for attempted murder.
They escaped in the early hours of Jan. 22 after cutting a hole in a metal grate and climbing through plumbing tunnels, according to the Associated Press. Authorities did not discover them missing until 16 hours later.
Police found Nayeri and Tieu while out on an unrelated call for medical aid around San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
While there, a woman flagged down the officers to notify them of a suspicious individual and a nearby vehicle that matched the description of a van believed to have been stolen by the escaped inmates and of a suspicious man.
Officers then found Nayeri, who led them on a short chase around San Francisco’s Kezar Stadium and the Park District Police Station. Once Nayeri was apprehended, police found Tieu hiding inside the van. They also found ammunition — but no weapons — in the van.
Nooshafarin Ravaghi, 44, who taught English at the jail, was arrested on suspicion of assisting in the escape by providing Nayeri with a printout Google Earth map showing the jail from above, according to AP.
All three are expected to be returned to the Orange County Sheriff’s custody where they will be housed separately in a different location and different manner from how they were jailed before, Hutchens said
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