The authorities on Tuesday were searching for two men who had escaped from a jail in Central Arkansas and were considered to be dangerous, in a manhunt that has mobilized law enforcement agencies across the state, officials said.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Tuesday that officers found out Monday morning that two detainees were missing from the W.C. “Dub” Brassell Adult Detention Center in Pine Bluff, about 40 miles southeast of Little Rock.
Officials are investigating how the men, Noah Roush, 22, and Jatonia Bryant, 23, escaped undetected, Maj. John Bean, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said on Tuesday. They likely fled within the last two days, he said, and they are not believed to be armed.
The Arkansas State Police and the Department of Corrections are assisting in the investigation.
Major Bean said reverse 911 calls had been made to the roughly 66,000 residents of Jefferson County, cautioning them about the manhunt.
He added that officials were also investigating the men’s relationship and whether they worked together.
Mr. Roush, who was being held on probable cause for residential burglary and theft of property, had also been named a suspect in a homicide, the sheriff’s office said.
Mr. Bryant had been detained on capital murder charges, the authorities said, stemming from the killing of Christopher Harris, 49, in Pine Bluff last summer. Police officers responded to reports of gunshots on July 29 and found Mr. Harris, who said he didn’t know anything about the gunfire, the authorities said. The officers left and then returned several minutes later in response to another report of gunfire and found that Mr. Harris had been fatally shot, the authorities said.
The manhunt has likely startled some people who live close to the jail, said Latisha Brunson, a city council member in Pine Bluff, which has about 40,000 residents. However, she added that no one had called her to ask about the search.
“We’re just letting law enforcement do their job,” Ms. Brunson said.
Steven Shaner, another Pine Bluff council member, said that his biggest concern was law enforcement figuring out exactly when the men escaped.
Last year, several communities across the country were gripped by high-profile manhunts that grew to involve hundreds of law enforcement officers, stirring anxiety in areas where escapees were thought to be hiding.
For nearly two weeks in September, Danelo Cavalcante, a Brazilian national who had been convicted of murder, eluded the authorities for 13 days after escaping from a prison outside Philadelphia.
Last spring, a man who was accused of fatally shooting five people in a neighborhood dispute outside Cleveland, Texas, eluded capture for days as a manhunt stretched across the state to the Mexican border. The hunt for the suspect, Francisco Oropesa, ended when heavily armed state and federal officers found him in a house a few miles from where the shooting took place.
Mr. Shaner said that as of Tuesday morning, he had not heard or sensed widespread worry about the manhunt in Pine Bluff. However, there was concern among city officials that the longer the search dragged on, the more worrisome it could become for residents.
When the detention center in Pine Bluff opened in 2007, it tripled the number of jail beds to 310, easing issues of overcrowding, according to the county website. The jail was also equipped with video surveillance.
Mr. Shaner said that in more than two decades in Pine Bluff, he could not recall any other inmates escaping from the jail.
“Hopefully they will have them back in custody soon,” he said.