ORANGE COUNTY, California (CNN) – With three dangerous fugitives still on the run, the anxiety in part of Southern California is palpable.
“I’m scared because these people are dangerous, and they may grab you or try to take your car,” said a woman in Westminster who would only identify herself as Carmen. “You just don’t know what they are going to do.”
Hossein Nayeri
About 10 miles east, Santa Ana gas station employee Mike Murched waits nervously for news about the inmates, who escaped just 3 miles from his store. He has been listening to the fears from his customers since the inmates broke out of the Orange County Central Men’s Jail on Friday.
“They tell me it’s scary. They tell me, ‘We don’t feel safe,’ ” he said.
Last month, Murched was robbed at gunpoint — prompting him to close the doors at 9 p.m. instead of midnight. Now, he’s worried about more violence from the escapees — “not just for me, but for my kids.”
Authorities described the fugitives as a trio of extremely dangerous men.
Hossein Nayeri, 37, was in jail for allegedly torturing and kidnapping; Jonathan Tieu, 20, was in jail on murder charges; and Bac Tien Duong, 43, was facing attempted murder charges.
Nayeri allegedly attacked a victim in the desert, poured bleach on the person, set the victim on fire and then severed the victim’s penis. The victim survived, Orange County Lt. Dave Sawyer said.
“He’s diabolical,” prosecutor Heather Brown told the Orange County Register. Brown is handling the 2012 case against Hossein Nayeri on charges of kidnapping and torture.
“My first reaction was: Oh, my God, they let Hannibal Lecter out. He is sophisticated, incredibly violent and cunning.”
Tieu is a documented Vietnamese gang member, Sawyer said, and Tien Duong has Vietnamese gang affiliations.
Authorities are offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the fugitives’ capture.
On the surface, the Central Men’s Jail may seem like an unlikely prison to have a breach. The barren-looking facility houses more than 1,000 sentenced and pre-trial maximum security inmates.
But it’s had plenty of escapes before.
Within five days of the jail’s opening in 1968, an inmate escaped by wiggling under loose mesh wire and using a garden hose to climb from the roof, the Orange County Register reported.
Months later, two others escape using the same unrepaired opening, the newspaper said.
In 1983, an inmate escaped by cutting through the chain-link roof cage and sliding down bedsheets, the Register reported. The fencing was reinforced.
And in 1988, five inmates climbed over reinforced fencing, cut through wire and use braided sheets to rappel down the building, according to the Register. While four managed to escape, the fifth was caught after breaking his leg in the attempt.
Last week’s jailbreak seemed like a cross between the upstate New York prison escape last year and a fictional movie plot.
“This was a very sophisticated escape,” Hallock said. “They cut through a quarter-inch metal plate. They crawled through unsecured plumbing tunnels to the roof. They cut through steel rebar.”
After that, the trio rappelled down four to five stories — about 50 feet high — using sheets, he said.
And it’s possible a fight that broke out at the jail was staged to distract staff members.
There were two head counts conducted the day they escaped — one at 5 a.m. and the second at 8 p.m., he said.
“We think they escaped after the 5 a.m. head count,” Hallock said. Sometime around 8 p.m. there was a fight, which authorities suspect was staged to distract and delay the second head count.
The inmates were housed in an area with about 60 other inmates, Hallock said, but it’s unclear whether other prisoners saw the men escape.
But not everyone in Southern California is worried about the fugitives.
On Monday, a father played with his two young children on the vast lawn outside the Central Men’s Jail.
And the fugitives haven’t stopped Santa Ana residents from going out at night.
Bartender Ricky Zollinger of The Olde Ship British Pub and Restaurant said some customers have casually mentioned the escape, but don’t seem too scared.
“One of the guys could just walk into the bar and just sit down and have a beer and we wouldn’t know about it,” he said.
But Zollinger said he doubts the fugitives will show their faces in public.
“I think that if they’ve broken out of jail, the last thing they’ll do is try to draw attention to themselves.”
