A murder suspect awaiting trial in New York City was accidentally released from custody Tuesday, police said.
A search is underway for Christopher Buggs, 26, after his release from the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island, according to the New York City Department of Correction. It was unclear how the mistake occurred.
Peter Thorne, the agency's deputy commissioner of public information, told NBC News in an email Wednesday that an investigation was ongoing.
"We are aware of this incident and a full investigation into how this happened is underway," he said "Right now we are working with our law enforcement partners to return this individual to custody."
Buggs is accused of fatally shooting Ernest Brownlee, 55, outside a deli in February 2018, according to police. He was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a firearm, police said.
Buggs is scheduled for his next court hearing in June, according to NBC New York.
"We're going to put additional safeguards in place to make sure this never happens again," Mayor Bill de Blasio said during his daily news conference. "It's very frustrating."
"We have a high level of confidence that he will be re-apprehended shortly," he said.
On Tuesday, authorities in Los Angeles appeared to make the same mistake when a murder suspect was accidentally released from custody due to a data entry error.
Steven Manzo vanished after running across the 101 Freeway in jail clothes, law enforcement sources said. The sources said officials discovered an incorrect entry in a computer system that led to his release.
Los Angeles County online jail records show an entry of a dismissed murder case, apparently in error, and a release time of 2:12 p.m.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which runs the county jails and is responsible for moving most inmates awaiting trial to and from court, referred questions to Long Beach police. Allison Gallagher, a spokesperson for the Long Beach agency, said in a statement that Manzo should not have been released but did not say how it happened or who was to blame.
Manzo is charged in the July 28, 2018, fatal shooting of 24-year-old Salvador Corrales.
He was arrested in March 2020, Long Beach police said at the time. The shooting is thought to have occurred after a dispute in a parking lot.
Police were working with local agencies "to make every effort to locate suspect Manzo to take him safely into custody," Gallagher said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, he had not been found.
