One inmate found dead after four escape from jail
Authorities in Mississippi are searching for three escaped inmates after a fourth died in a tense standoff with law enforcement.
On Saturday night around 8.30pm, four inmates at the Raymond Detention Center in Hinds County, Mississippi escaped by climbing onto the building’s roof and fleeing in a Hinds County Public Works pickup truck.
The truck was eventually found abandoned on Sunday afternoon in Spring Valley, Texas, almost 450 miles from the jail.
The escaped inmates were identified as Dylan Arrington, 22, Casey Grayson, 24, Corey Harrison, 22, and Jerry Raynes, 51. They are all now facing additional charges of escape and auto theft for the jailbreak.
Grayson, Harrison, and Raynes are all still on the lam, but Arrington’s body was recovered on Wednesday night after he engaged sheriff’s deputies in an armed standoff in a burning building in Conway.
Arrington was charged with auto theft and possession of a firearm as a felon. He had only been at the Raymond Detention Center since April 13, 2023.
Before the deadly standoff, investigators also believe Arrington was responsible for killing a pastor and fleeing in his pickup truck on Monday night in Jackson, just fifteen miles from the jail.
The victim, who was identified as 61-year-old Reverend Anthony Watts of the St Mary Missionary Baptist Church, was pronounced dead at the scene.
On Tuesday night, a homeowner in Leake County called 911 to report a man matching Arrington’s description hiding in a trailer behind his house.
Investigators searched the property that night, but found no sign of Arrington.
The next morning around 7.00am, the homeowner and a Leake County Sheriff’s Deputy returned to the property and found Arrington hiding inside the home.
Arrington shot at the deputy through the house’s front window, striking him in the leg.
Sheriff’s deputies began a 2-hour long standoff with Arrington, which ended when the house went up in flames. It is currently unclear how the fire was started.
Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones confirmed the remains belonged to Arrington on late Wednesday night. His cause of death is currently under investigation.
‘I’ve seen a lot of things, but I’ve never seen a situation where a structure was engulfed in flames and an individual inside the structure started firing shots at law enforcement,’ Sheriff Jones said in a statement posted on Twitter.
‘This individual had violence on his mind, and I will say he did not contend to leave here alive today,’
Authorities are still searching for Grayson, Harrison, and Raynes, who they believe did not all leave the jail at the same time after escaping onto the roof.
Raynes was spotted on security camera footage at a gas station in Texas around 11.00am on Sunday, Jones said. The sheriff said it was unclear if Raynes traveled out of Mississippi alone.
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