BATON ROUGE – Baton Rouge Police revealed late Thursday, there is an internal department investigation into how a man at the center of a violent investigation was able to walk freely out of a secure interrogation facility and prompt a massive manhunt at the height of Halloween trick-or-treat hours Wednesday.

Police spent all of Wednesday night and some of Thursday morning searching for Steven Corbitt after he escaped the Violent Crimes Unit at the State Police compound on Independence Boulevard. Police elaborated little about what happened when questioned by the WBRZ Investigative Unit but said it will reveal additional details later in the night. 

The VCU is a multi-agency facility where authorities from across the city take those connected to high-profile and violent crimes for questioning. Typically, this is where detectives will question violent suspects.

Corbitt was facing attempted second-degree murder, illegal use of a weapon, and aggravated assault with a firearm charges when he escaped, police said.

Details of his escape – and even the fact that he had made a break for it – were kept quiet until WBRZ broke the story to the city during WBRZ News 2 at 6:30 on WBRZ+ and through a push notification to smartphone users.

WBRZ confirmed the story through sources. Police did not release details of the escape until after the TV station reported the situation on the news.

Corbitt was captured around 7:30 Thursday morning – about 13 hours after his escape.

In a statement to WBRZ, police said there is an “internal investigation with regard to policy and potential discipline of involved officers.” At first, the department declined to make a department spokesperson available for an interview but finally agreed to speak with WBRZ late Thursday evening.