Police are searching for four inmates who escaped from a jail in Macon, Georgia (Pictures: AP /WGXA
A manhunt is underway for four inmates who escaped from a Georgia jail, including one charged with murder.
Early Monday morning, four men escaped from the Bibb County Detention Center in Macon, Georgia by climbing out a damaged window and through a hold in the facility’s fence.
The four men were identified as Joey Fournier, Marc Kerry Anderson, Johnifer Dernard Barnwell, and Chavis Demaryo Stokes.
Bibb County Sheriff David Davis said he would consider each of the fugitives ‘a little bit dangerous.’
A hole in the fence used by the inmates to escape (Picture: WGXA)
Fournier, 52, was charged with the murder of his ex-girlfriend in February 2022.
Anderson, 24, was charged with aggravated assault. Stokes, 29, was charged with possession of a firearm and drug trafficking.
Barnwell, 37, was being held on behalf of the US Marshals and is facing drug charges.
‘I would think that anybody who’s escaped from the jail with some of these charges would be somebody that probably does not want to go back to jail,’ Davis said.
The Bibb County Detention Center in Macon, Georgia was opened 43 years ago, according to Sheriff Davis (Picture: Bibb County Sheriff’s Office)
The escape was discovered around 6.00am. After reviewing security footage, jail staff quickly realized the escape happened almost three hours earlier.
The Sheriff’s Department is currently investigating exactly what happened that allowed the inmates to escape.
‘Right around 3.30am this morning, these inmates were able to leave out from a dayroom window,’ Sheriff Davis said.
‘Sometimes the dayrooms are not locked. Typically when they are supposed to be in bed, the dayrooms are not locked,’ Davis said. ‘Typically, that is not an issue because the inmates are supposed to be in another part of the jail.’
Joey Fournier was charged with murdering his ex-girlfriend (Picture: AP)
Marc Kerry Anderson was charged with aggravated assault (Picture: AP)
From the damaged window, the four inmates then made it to a fenced-in yard, where they found a hole in the fence and some unidentified ‘items’ that may have helped them escape.
‘There was some video footage of a vehicle that had been there earlier in the evening that looked like they had been tampering with the fence,’ Davis said.
The vehicle was identified as a blue Dodge Challenger, and authorities are looking to speak with the driver.
The driver of the vehicle also dropped off items inside the fence that were ‘used by these inmates to escape.’
Johnifer Dernard Barnwell was being held on behalf of the US Marshals (Picture: AP)
Chavis Demaryo Stokes was charged with possession of a firearm and drug trafficking (Picture: AP)
It is unclear if the inmates left inside the car or on foot after escaping from the jail.
‘These individuals could be anywhere,’ Davis said. ‘We don’t know if they’re all together at this point.’
According the sheriff, the deteriorating state of the jail may have played a role in allowing the four inmates to escape.
‘We have a 43-year-old jail, and this happened in the oldest, run down-est part of the jail,’ Davis said.
Davis also said there were less than 10 sheriff’s department employees working in the jail when the escape happened.
‘Not as many as we would like,’ he said. According to the sheriff staffing has ‘been an issue for us.’
Investigators are asking for the public’s assistance in tracking down the four inmates, and has offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to their capture.
Four men escaped from the Bibb County Detention Center in Macon, Georgia by climbing out a damaged window and through a hold in the facility’s fence.