California: 1 of 3 escapees turns himself in
Orange County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Lt. Jeff Hallock says escaped inmate Bac Duong, marked “Captured,” left, surrendered in Orange County earlier Friday, Jan. 29, 2016, during a news conference in Sata Ana, Calif. Duong told investigators he was with the other two fugitives in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday. Hallock says the other two men, Jonathan Tieu and Hossein Nayeri, may now be headed to Fresno in Central California, where there may be associates who can help them. Authorities had previously said they thought all three men were still in Southern California. AP Photo
LOS ANGELES, United States—One of three men who escaped a week ago from a California jail surrendered and was arrested Friday, while his two companions remained on the loose.
Bac Duong, 43, was arrested in Santa Ana.
The men who escaped with him, Hossein Nayeri, 37, and Jonathan Tieu, 20—both considered dangerous and probably armed—are still being sought in a frantic pursuit by police in the area southeast of Los Angeles.
Duong approached a civilian in Santa Ana around midday and “stated he wanted to turn himself in,” Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens told reporters.
He had been jailed since December on charges including assault with a deadly weapon.
A stolen white utility van that authorities say the escapees have been living in has not been located.
“I think the longer they’re out of custody, the more desperate they become, and that makes them more dangerous” said Lieutenant Jeff Hallock of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
He said the two remaining men may have fled to Fresno or San Jose, which lie between the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
On Thursday, a 44-year-old English teacher, Nooshafarian Ravaghi, was arrested after authorities called her a “key” accomplice of the three men.
She had given classes at the Santa Ana jail to Nayeri.
Police have said the trio must have had “outside help.”
But Ravaghi has denied furnishing the escapees with the tools they used to cut through a ventilation grill and to fashion a makeshift rope from knotted bedsheets that allowed them to rappel down from the roof of the jail.
Ten people have been arrested so far in connection with the spectacular escape.
The authorities have been focusing their investigation on the local Vietnamese community.
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