HAMMOND — An escapee from the Tangipahoa Parish Jail was taken into custody six months after his jailbreak when deputies found him in a closet while investigating a shooting.

During a news conference Thursday, Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Gerald Sticker said 20-year-old Jamarcus Cyprian was arrested on escape and gun charges. Cyprian was serving time for armed robbery and escaped May 16. Jail employees didn't know he was gone until three other inmates escaped 10 days later. 

Cyprian was identified as a person of interest in a Tuesday shooting at a Hammond apartment complex on Rufus Bankston Road. Deputies said they chased three suspects, Jaylin Robertson, 26, her brother Johnathan, 23, and Julien Felder, 18, who got away. No one was hurt in the gunfire and Jaylin Robertson was arrested. 

The following day, deputies tracked down Cyprian at another apartment complex less than two miles away on Quick Boulevard. He was found hiding in a utility closet with a gun and a bag of hair clippings.

"We believe he was trying to change his appearance to avoid capture," Sticker said.

Four other people were in the apartment when Cyprian was arrested. Deputies arrested Mi’keem Jackson, 18; Parish Brumfield, 18; Brad Bennett, 18; and Dejonae Demouchet, 20; and accused them of assisting in Cyprian's escape and on gun charges. Demouchet, whose apartment was searched, was also arrested on an outstanding warrant for child endangerment, Sticker said.

WBRZ previously reported that three other men — Travon Johnson, 21; Avery Guidry, 19; and Omarion Hookfin, 20 — serving time for an unrelated crime also escaped the jail through a corroded piece of fence and crawled under an eight-inch gap in the wall before scaling the razer-wire fences. The other three men were quickly brought back into custody.

Sticker said Cyprian spent time between Dallas and Tangipahoa Parish during his six months on the lam. Deputies teamed up with the U.S. Marshals Service to track down Cyprian. Sticker said Cyprian likely committed multiple crimes in Texas.

Sticker added that Cyprian is also a person of interest in a July double homicide that happened in Amite.

At the news conference, Sticker also said that he has made improvements to the Tangipahoa Parish Jail, including fortifying the fence and filing vacancies. The sheriff has previously cited both of these as reasons the escapes happened in May.