Fourteen inmates escaped from jail, 6 still on the loose
Half a dozen inmates were on the loose Tuesday after 14 escaped from a county jail in Washington state the night before, officials said.
"ALERT! Several prisoners have escaped from the Yakima County Jail in Downtown Yakima," said a Facebook post from the city of Yakima on Monday night. The post added that residents in certain areas of the city should remain indoors and call police if they see any suspicious activity.
The inmates were able to escape by breaking open an exterior fire door using a table from inside an annex, authorities shared.
"They decided they were going to break down the door and leave," said Yakima County Sheriff Robert Udell in a video posted on Facebook. "Despite the governor’s shelter-in-place or stay-at-home order, apparently they didn’t want to do that so they are out and about."
The Yakima County Police Department could not at first say how many inmates had escaped from the jail. "The actual number of inmates unaccounted for is unknown," said a tweet from the department.
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Later, a Facebook post from the county sheriff's office said 12 inmates had escaped. It was then updated it to say eight had been captured, and six were still on the loose.
Police said the inmates were likely wearing green shirts, imprinted with YCDOC and dark sweatpants. They could be barefoot or wearing orange sandals.
The inmates still on the run have been identified as Neftali Serrano, 27; Hugo Alejandro Amezcua-Hernandez, 28; Fernando Gustavo Casteneda-Sandoval, 31, all from Yakima; Tyrone Adam Mulvaney, 34, and Miguel Angel Chavez-Amezcua, 27, from Moses Lake; and Andrew Derrick Wolfley, 26, from Union Gap.
"We need your help to get these guys back in custody cause we don’t know what they’re going to be doing when we haven’t got our eyes on them," the sheriff said.
Forty-one people in the county are confirmed or presumed to have the coronavirus, according to the Yakima Health District. The sheriff's office did not immediately respond to questions regarding if any inmates in the jail had tested positive or were showing symptoms of the virus.
Multiple law enforcement agencies were assisting in the search effort after the inmates escaped just after 7 p.m.
