Police are searching for a suspected murderer who was released on accident from Rikers Island after a paperwork error.
Christopher Buggs, 26, is waiting for trail for a 2018 murder when he was released mistakenly for a different case. In the unrelated case, he was sentenced to 30 days of time for 'criminal contempt.' Buggs, was accused of killing Ernest Brownlee, 55, outside a bodega in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Brownlee was allegedly a career criminal who killed two men in the 80's.
"We are aware of this incident and a full investigation into how this happened is underway. Right now we are working with our law enforcement partners to return this individual to custody," Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Peter Thorne said.
"This is being fully investigated right now. We are going to put additional safeguards in place to make sure this never happens again. it's very frustrating. It was based on a court order, but it was apparently one case that this inmate had connected to him, but there were other charges obviously as well that should have meant he remained incarcerated. So we are going to get a full review of this immediately, make whatever changes we have to. In the meantime, we have a high level of confidence that he will be re-apprehended shortly," Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
Anyone with information in regard to the whereabouts of Christopher Buggs l is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).