The last of the 10 inmates who had been on the run after a New Orleans jail break in May has been captured, police said Wednesday.
Derrick Groves, 28, was taken into custody after a “brief confrontation” in Atlanta, Louisiana State Police said.
The capture involved a “coordinated effort” that included the U.S. Marshals Service, FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, Louisiana State Police, Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, New Orleans Police Department, Atlanta Police Department, Crimestoppers Greater New Orleans and other agencies, police said.
Derrick Groves.
Louisiana State Police
Tips from Crimestoppers led authorities to the home in southwest Atlanta on Wednesday morning, and he was arrested in a confined space two to three hours later, according to the New Orleans U.S. Marshals Task Force.
The Atlanta Police Department’s SWAT team deployed “several gas canisters to help move him throughout the house” and Groves moved to the basement, Atlanta Deputy Police Chief Kelly Collier told reporters. A police canine located Groves in a confined space, according to Collier.
He had minor scratches, but otherwise no one was hurt, authorities said.
Groves is one of 10 inmates who authorities say brazenly escaped from the Orleans Justice Center in the early morning hours of May 16 after climbing through a hole behind a toilet. His disappearance went unnoticed for several hours and sparked a massive manhunt.
Groves was convicted last year of two counts of second-degree murder in a shooting on Mardi Gras Day 2018 and faces a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said. Unrelated to that case, he also later pleaded guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter, online court records show.
Derrick Groves is seen after being detained at a residence in Atlanta on October 8, 2025.
WSB
“Groves’ escape represented a serious violation of public safety and a historic failure of custody security,” Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said in a statement Wednesday. “His capture brings long-awaited calm to the victims, their families, the witnesses who testified, the deputy prosecutors who prosecuted him, and the people of New Orleans who were rightly concerned that a convicted violent felon had escaped so easily and evaded justice for so long.”
Williams added that his office “will pursue every legal avenue available to ensure that Derrick Groves is held accountable for every crime he has committed and every consequence he has sought to avoid.”
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill also said Wednesday that Groves now faces charges “for his role in the escape and I will ensure he is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Louisiana State Police said the 10th and final inmate to escape from the Orleans Justice Center is now in custody.
Louisiana State Police
Williams said authorities will investigate to see who may have helped Groves get to Atlanta.
“He obviously received some help, and there will be a thorough investigation of each and every person who helped him along the way, in any parish and county where the help came,” Williams said during a news conference Wednesday.
Groves’ apparent girlfriend, Darriana Burton, was arrested in June. for allegedly helping Groves escape, authorities said. He allegedly took “active participation in the planning phase of the escape,” according to his arrest warrant affidavit, including transmitting “information related to the escape” and coordinating communications between Groves and people outside the jail.
The cell at the Orleans Justice Center in New Orleans from which inmates apparently escaped.
Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office
Burton is one of more than a dozen people who have been arrested on suspicion of aiding fugitives, including another inmate at the jail and a jail maintenance worker who is accused of turning off the toilet water allowing the fugitives to remove it.
Three of the 10 escaped inmates were arrested in New Orleans within the first 24 hours of the escape. Others were captured in the following days, including in Baton Rouge and Texas.
The ninth inmate, Antoine Massey, was located in New Orleans in late June after the sheriff’s office said it had received a tip. Louisiana authorities were investigating a video that circulated online earlier that month that appeared to show Massey pleading with rappers and President Donald Trump to help him while he was still on the run.
ABC News’ faith abubey and sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
