What Authorities Say Happened
According to reporting by Fox News, eight incarcerated men escaped from the Riverbend Detention Center in northeast Louisiana early on a Friday morning. Louisiana State Police said the individuals, described by the agency as “violent offenders,” were reported missing at about 1:20 a.m.
By the time state and local agencies began publicly describing the breakout, three of the eight had already been recaptured. Five, all men in their late teens or twenties, were still unaccounted for.
Based on information released through state police and summarized by Fox News, the group can be divided into two categories.
Still at large:
Item 1: Destin Brogan, 22, who is facing a second-degree murder charge, according to local outlet WAFB 9 News.
Item 2: Kelin Looney, 21, also reported by WAFB 9 News to be facing a second-degree murder charge.
Item 3: Krisean Salinas, 21, described as a violent offender by state police. Publicly available reporting so far has not detailed his underlying charges.
Item 4: Kevin Slaughter, 25, also labeled a violent offender. As with Salinas, local reporting cited by Fox News has not specified his current charges.
Item 5: Koplelon Vicknair, 19, who was awaiting sentencing on charges connected to a 2023 homicide, according to KQKI News, as referenced in the Fox News coverage.
Recaptured after the escape:
Item 1: Hugo Molino, 27.
Item 2: Trenton Taplin, 29. WAFB 9 News reported that Taplin is charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder.
Item 3: Savon Wheeler, 31.
All of the men are presumed innocent of their pending charges unless and until they are convicted in court. Fox News cited local outlets for the charging information and noted that state police have treated all eight as high-risk individuals.
How the Manhunt Is Organized
Responsibility for finding the missing men and for figuring out what went wrong at Riverbend has been split between state and local agencies.
The East Carroll Parish Sheriff’s Office asked the Louisiana State Police Detectives – Monroe Field Office to take the lead role in tracking and apprehending the escapees, according to Fox News. The sheriff’s office, which initially put most of its deputies on the ground searching, remains the primary agency in charge of the broader investigation into the escape itself.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill publicly aligned her office with the effort. In a statement on X, she said she had spoken with East Carroll Parish Sheriff Wydette Williams and Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association President Kevin Cobb.
“[I] have offered the full assistance of my office, including the Fugitive Apprehension Unit,” Murrill wrote, adding, “I am actively monitoring the situation.” The post appears on her official account and was cited by Fox News, which linked directly to the statement on X here.
Louisiana State Police issued a separate public warning, also quoted by Fox News. The agency told residents, “Do not approach under any circumstances. If you observe or have information regarding their whereabouts, contact law enforcement immediately.”
That framing puts the public on alert without providing detailed descriptions of each person’s alleged conduct or the circumstances of the escape itself. Officials have so far stressed the danger but not yet explained the breach.
What We Know About the Charges
While the full docket of each person’s case is not included in the initial state police statements, local outlets have filled in some of the context around why at least four of the eight were held at Riverbend in the first place.
According to WAFB 9 News, which Fox News cited in its coverage, the following charges are on the table:
Item 1: Trenton Taplin is charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder. Those are among the most serious charges under Louisiana law and can carry lengthy prison terms or, in some circumstances, the possibility of a life sentence.
Item 2: Destin Brogan and Kelin Looney are each facing second-degree murder charges, WAFB reported. Second-degree murder in Louisiana typically involves an allegation of intentional killing without the specific elements that raise a case to first degree.
Item 3: Koplelon Vicknair was awaiting sentencing in a case tied to a 2023 homicide, according to KQKI News as summarized by Fox News. That means a court had already entered some form of conviction or plea in his matter, although the exact outcome is not detailed in the public summaries.
For the remaining men, including Salinas, Slaughter, Molino, and Wheeler, the Fox News article does not provide specifics on the charges beyond noting that state police labeled all of them violent offenders.
None of the available reporting suggests that any of the five who remain unaccounted for have been tried and convicted on the murder charges currently pending. They are in pretrial or pre-sentencing stages in the criminal process, and the legal presumption of innocence applies to them on those charges.
The Missing Details on the Escape Itself
Despite the intense search effort and the seriousness of the charges, crucial details about how the escape happened are still not public.
Fox News reported that “it is unclear how the men escaped” and that no additional details about the method of escape had been released by authorities at the time of publication. There is no public explanation yet of whether the men exploited a physical weakness in the facility, benefited from human error, or had any kind of inside help.
Key questions that remain unanswered in the available reporting include:
Item 1: When exactly did the escape occur, and how long were the men missing before they were discovered at 1:20 a.m.?
Item 2: Were any alarms triggered or surveillance systems activated, and if so, how did the group manage to move beyond the secure perimeter?
Item 3: Have investigators identified any staff misconduct or policy violations at Riverbend Detention Center in connection with the incident?
Officials may have internal answers to some of these questions, but as of the reporting cited here they have chosen not to release that information. The result is a public manhunt taking place against a backdrop of limited transparency about how the situation developed.
Broader Concerns About Jail Security
The breakout at Riverbend is not the first Louisiana jail incident in recent years to raise questions about security and oversight.
Fox News, in the same article, connected the Riverbend escape to prior scrutiny of the Orleans Parish jail. The outlet linked to its previous reporting on a “coordinated” escape involving ten individuals and allegations that a jail worker helped them leave the facility. That earlier story, which can be found here, focused on accusations against a staff member and on questions from local officials about how the jailbreak was allowed to happen.
Those cases involve different parishes and different facilities, and there is no evidence in the publicly available reporting that they share personnel or a coordinated plan. What links them in the Fox News coverage is a pattern of serious incidents that highlight vulnerabilities in Louisiana detention centers and that put pressure on sheriffs and state officials to show that they can keep people safely in custody.
The Riverbend escape also intersects with broader concerns about conditions and staffing in many local jails across the United States. Chronic understaffing, aging physical plants, and high turnover can all reduce a facility’s ability to monitor incarcerated people and to respond quickly when something goes wrong. The current reporting on Riverbend, however, does not yet specify whether any of those factors played a role.
What Comes Next
As of the latest information described in the Fox News report, five men remain at large. The Louisiana State Police have urged anyone who sees them or has information about their locations to contact law enforcement immediately and not to confront them directly.
Investigators in East Carroll Parish are at the same time trying to reconstruct what happened inside the Riverbend Detention Center before 1:20 a.m. on the morning of the breakout. Until they publicly share those findings, the community is left with a blunt warning that dangerous individuals are missing, but few details about how that risk emerged.
When authorities eventually explain how eight people were able to leave a secured facility and why three were quickly recaptured while five remain missing, those answers will shape not only the future of Riverbend but also public confidence in the systems meant to keep serious criminal cases on track.
