Santa Ana residents were breathing easier Saturday after knowing the three dangerous — and armed — inmates who escaped from the nearby Orange County Jail had finally been captured.
The three men, Jonathan Tieu, 20, Hossein Nayeri, 37, and Bac Duong, 43, escaped from an Orange County jail, rappelling down the side of the building in a "very well thought out" plan, authorities said.
Talk of the three armed and dangerous inmates who escaped on Jan. 22 had reached national levels of attention, but for residents of the neighborhood closest to the jail, the concern hit a little too close to home.
"At least we'll sleep now," said Larry Wilson, a Santa Ana resident. "I won't have to carry my gun all the time."
The unresolved situation had residents like Theresa Wilson and her family making sure to lock their doors on a nightly basis, not knowing where the inmates could be.
Given her proximity to the county jail located right in Santa Ana, once Wilson heard of their capture, she had a reason to be pleased.
"A friend texted me saying all three had been captured," she said. "We were like, 'Yes!'"
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One of the inmates, Duong, was taken into custody on Friday around noon, as he surrendered to authorities at a used car dealership in Santa Ana. The other two were captured Saturday in San Francisco where they were found and taken into custody.
Authorities were planning to transfer the inmates back to the Santa Ana and processed back into the Orange County Jail alongside the third inmate, this time with even tighter security measures, authorities said.
