MACON, Ga. — Safety is top of mind at the Bibb County Sheriff's Office as deputies continue investigating how four inmates escaped from the jail early Monday morning.
The inmates – facing charges ranging from murder to drug trafficking – escaped at around 3 a.m. Monday.
The four men include 52-year-old Joey Fournier, 29-year-old Chavis Stokes, 25-year-old Marc K. Anderson and 37-year-old Johnifer Barnwell, according to the release.
The sheriff's office doesn't know if the four escapees are still together, or if they're still in Macon. At a news conference Monday, Sheriff David Davis urged people to be cautious.
"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. "I would consider these individuals to be a little bit dangerous."
While he believes they're likely away from the area, Davis isn't ruling anything out. He says it's important to watch for anything out of the ordinary.
"If you see something or hear of anything suspicious, certainly look. If you hear somebody rumbling around in your shed or your garage, it wouldn't be a bad idea to call and have a deputy come and check it," Davis suggested.
The sheriff discouraged investigating by yourself if there's anyone on your property. He says you should always call the sheriff's office first.
"Indications are they have gone away. I don't know if they are gone from this area. A couple of them have contacts outside the middle Georgia area, so we're certainly following up on that," Davis said.
Davis believes wherever they are, the men decided where to go and what to do long before they moved beyond the barbed wire.
"Typically, in these types of situations, they've already planned out getting out. And they probably have somebody on the outside waiting for them," Davis said.
Local, state and federal agencies are helping Bibb County investigators with the search. The FBI pledged to add more money to a $1,000 Crimestoppers reward for any information leading to their capture. Davis says they're also using developing technologies to narrow things down.
"We do have cameras here in Macon that we are using that we're looking at. Some of those cameras have been able to show us a little bit of information that has been useful to us," Davis said.
The sheriff says they're working with neighboring counties to tap into their FLOCK camera systems. Those are tag-reading cameras that keep a log of all cars that drive by.
In February, we reported the sheriff's office wanted to install 150 cameras countywide. They'd use $1.6 million in state grants to pay for the system. Sheriff Davis told 13WMAZ Monday those cameras are not yet up and running in Bibb County. He believes they could have made a difference in the early hours of the search.
Even without the Bibb County cameras online, Davis is adamant they'll catch the escapees.
"Somebody is probably laughing at the TV set saying, 'They'll never catch us. They'll never catch us,'" Davis said at the news conference. "We will catch them."