Update: Adams County deputies have announced that Omari Jaiquan Smith was captured after leading deputies on a high-speed chase.
The chase ended when the vehicle occupied by Smith and his brother, Kemari Smith, crashed into a wooded area.
Officers report that Omari Smith was ejected from the vehicle. He was taken to a local hospital. His condition is unknown at this time.
Officials with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office are asking for the public’s help in locating an inmate who escaped the county jail early Wednesday morning.
According to Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten, 20-year-old Omari Jaiquan Smith was being held temporarily in the jail’s visitation room when he kicked out a window and escaped shortly after 5 a.m.
“Early this morning, at about 3 a.m., Smith was causing all kinds of problems in the jail. We are overrun in the jail with lunacy patients, and Smith is a lunacy patient,” Patten told The Natchez Democrat.
Due to there being zero vacant cells for mental health patients, guards had to place Smith into the visitation area as a temporary measure before they could secure a more permanent location for the inmate.
“We don’t have a jail where we can cut water off in the cells, so we can’t put lunacy patients in them because they will turn on the water and flood the jail,” Patten told the local newspaper. “We were trying to move other inmates around to put him in the holding cell downstairs when he kicked out the window in visitation and ran out the front door.”
Patten says all hands are on deck in the search for Smith, who was last seen running south on Natchez’ Canal Street around 5:20 a.m. If you have any information regarding the escaped inmate’s whereabouts, contact the Adams County Sheriff’s Office at (601)442-2752.
