Police believe up to 3 Mississippi escaped inmates are in Houston area after 1 caught on camera
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Law enforcement believes up to three fugitives from a Mississippi jail escape may be in the Houston area. One has been caught on camera.
On Wednesday, Hinds County, Mississippi, Sheriff Tyree Jones released a surveillance image of escapee Jerry Raynes inside a service station Sunday morning. Jones said the location was Spring Valley, but ABC13 has confirmed the address is actually 9303 Katy Freeway, which is Hedwig Village.
The image is the first publicly confirmed sighting of one of the fugitives in the Houston area. Law enforcement suspected at least one of the men may be in the area, after a Hinds County public works truck they used as a getaway vehicle was found under the I-10 and Campbell Road overpass at about 11 a.m. Sunday. The surveillance image of Raynes was captured at about the same time.
An employee at the gas station told ABC13 that she remembered the man.
"He came in holding his face," she said. The employee added he was acting "weird," seemed like he was injured, and asked her if she knew where the closest hospital was.
Raynes is one of four men who escaped from the Hinds County Detention Center late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. Raynes, along with Dylan Arrington, Casey Grayson, and Corey Harrison, is believed to have climbed out a hole in the jail's roof.
Jones said he did not know if Grayson and Harrison traveled to the Houston area with Raynes.
On Wednesday, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez tweeted that Raynes "could be in the Houston area." He added that "although there has been no mention of Raynes being armed or violent, extreme caution should be used." A law enforcement bulletin called him an "extreme escape risk" who has a "history of escaping."
"I have firearms, and I've been ready. I've been making sure I know their faces," Tanya Lyons, who lives in the Spring Branch area, said. "Everyone be safe and be alert. Tell your neighbors and check on your neighbors and spread the word."
Wednesday night, Jones confirmed Arrington was killed in a shootout with law enforcement Wednesday morning at a Leake County home. The home, which is northeast of Jackson, Mississippi, caught on fire during the shootout. A Leake County investigator was injured in the shootout and is expected to be OK.
Arrington is also suspected of murdering 61-year-old Pastor Anthony Watts and stealing his pickup truck Monday night in Jackson, Mississippi. Law enforcement believes Watts had stopped to help Arrington, who had crashed a stolen motorcycle when he was carjacked and shot several times.
SEE MORE: Escaped inmate from Mississippi abandons getaway vehicle in Houston area, police say
