Los Angeles – Bac Duong, one of the inmates on the run, approached a civilian on the streets of Santa Ana and stated that he wanted to turn himself in, according to Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens in a statement on Friday.
The sheriff stated that Duong apparently surrendered due to the pressure that was being put on him by the general community, during an exhaustive, week-long manhunt. He is now in custody by the local authorities.
Duong, and two others still not found, escaped from a maximum-security prison in California on January 22th. Apparently, they received help from a woman who was teaching english as a second language at the prison.
She allegedly provided the inmates with Google Maps information that included overviews of the jail rooftop and surrounding areas, as reported by Reuters. The woman, named Nooshafarin Ravaghi was arrested on Thursday.
The other two, still not found inmates, are Hossein Nayeri, 37, and Jonathan Tieu,20. Nayeri, the supposed brain behind the great escape, was in jail on charges stemming from the 2012 mutilation and torture of a kidnap victim.
Ravaghi, the teacher, and Nayeri had been exchanging handwritten lettres outside class that were personal in nature before the escape, said the spokesman Lieutenant Jeff Hallock in a news conference on Friday.
Tieu was facing murder charges, and the recently found Duong is facing charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, among other crimes like escaping a maximum-security prison. Tieu and Duong are allegedly tie to a Vietnamese-American street gang.
The inmates apparently escaped using a power tool to cut their way through a steel grate in their cell, then they climbed through the plumbing tunnels and made its way to the jail’s roof top. After getting there, the escapists used a rope made of braided bedsheets to rappel to their final step, freedom. The escape was the first in the Orange County since 1980, the officials have said.
Source: CBS News