Murder suspect mistakenly released from New York jail over clerical error

INQUIRER.net Stock Photo

Authorities are now looking for a murder suspect who was mistakenly released due to a clerical gaffe in New York City’s Rikers Island jail in the United States.

Christopher Buggs, 26, had been in jail for three years awaiting trial for a murder case, but was let go after he was sentenced based on an unrelated misdemeanor criminal contempt charge, according to sources cited by New York Daily News yesterday, March 10.

Buggs is accused of killing 55-year-old Ernest Brownlee outside a Brooklyn bodega back in January 2018. Brownlee, an ex-convict who killed two men in the ’80s, got hit thrice in the chest.

Brownlee, Buggs’ apparent victim, was said to have been a changed man and was devoted to taking care of his sickly wife, according to Brownlee’s sister-in-law Alita Mackins in an interview with the newspaper in 2018.

In what the Correction Department described as an “erroneous discharge,” Buggs was released from the Otis Bantum Correctional Center at around 2 a.m. last Tuesday, March 9, the report said.

Jail staffers were said to have mistakenly listed his unrelated criminal contempt case, for which Buggs was sentenced for 30 days of time served, as the final disposition of his murder case.

“We are aware of this incident, and a full investigation into how this happened is underway,” Correction Department spokesman Peter Thorne was quoted as saying. “Right now we are working with our law enforcement partners to return this individual to custody.

Correction officers were advised to contact the New York Police Department as Buggs is currently believed to be armed and dangerous, sources said as cited by the newspaper.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has since called the screw-up as “very frustrating,” noting that they were “going to put additional safeguards in place to make sure this never happens again,” as per ABC News earlier today, March 11.

He affirmed, however, that they had “a high level of confidence that he (Buggs) will be reapprehended shortly.” Ian Biong /ra

RELATED STORIES:

Teen accidentally detonates explosive device in classroom, 6 injured

Serial killer known as ‘1-5 Strangler’ found strangled to death in prison cell