According to authorities, four prisoners are on the loose after escaping a central Georgia jail through a shattered second-floor window and crossing the perimeter walls.
The inmates fled from the Bibb County Detention Centre in Macon, roughly 84 miles southeast of Atlanta, around 3 a.m. Monday, according to the Bibb County Sheriff's Office.
According to a sheriff's office news release, the four climbed via a shattered dayroom window and a cut fence.
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Sheriff David Davis informed reporters that a blue Dodge Challenger parked near the barrier appeared to facilitate the escape.
According to the FBI's Atlanta office, the agency is now collaborating with local law enforcement and the US Marshals Service to locate the four inmates.
Joey Fournier, 52, suspected of murder, is one of the escapees. The others are Marc Kerry Anderson, 24, charged with aggravated assault, and Chavis Demaryo Stokes, 29, charged with handgun possession and narcotics trafficking, according to the sheriff's office.
The fourth escapee, Johnifer Dernard Barnwell, 37, was held by the US Marshals after being convicted on federal crimes linked to the "armed distribution of large quantities of drugs," according to a news release from the US Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia.
According to the sheriff, investigators are still reviewing video evidence taken while the blue sedan parked and waited near the jail gate. It is unknown if the detainees got into the car.
Davis stated that "less than 10 people" were working in the facility at the time of the escape. He noted that the department has begun to make some staffing changes at the institution.
An internal investigation is looking into how the inmates got out of their cells and into a day room, a regular area for inmates during indoor leisure periods that may not have been closed because the inmates were supposed to be sleeping.
