SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) – Unlike similar brazen escapes where inmates fled remote prisons into rural areas, the three men who broke out of a Southern California lockup escaped in the middle of densely populated Orange County – where hundreds of officers are centering the search.
The investigation was focused on suburban communities where the men could be hiding among friends, family or fellow gang members, authorities said Monday, the third full day of the manhunt.
They looked in particular to Orange County’s huge Vietnamese population, among the largest in the U.S., in Garden Grove and Westminster just a few miles from the Santa Ana jail where Friday’s escape took place.
Two of the inmates, Jonathan Tieu, 20, Bac Duong, 43, have deep ties to the community, and sheriff’s officials put out a call in both English and Vietnamese on Monday for help in finding them.
Sheriff’s Lt. Dave Sawyer who is leading the investigation, said the two “may be embedded” there.