The safety of Perry County residents is the top priority
In the quiet hours before dawn on a Saturday in central Alabama, four men charged with serious crimes — including murder — slipped away from a correctional facility in Uniontown, setting in motion a search that would draw multiple agencies and put an entire region on alert. The escape from the Perry County PREP Center, a facility operating under an interagency custody arrangement, raised immediate questions not only about where these men had gone, but about how they had managed to leave at all. As law enforcement mobilized and the public was warned to stay clear, the event served as a reminder of how fragile the boundaries of containment can be — and how quickly a community's sense of safety can be unsettled.
- Four men facing charges including murder and first-degree robbery vanished from a central Alabama correctional facility around 1 a.m. Saturday, triggering an urgent multi-agency manhunt.
- The escape from the PREP Center — a facility built around reentry and rehabilitation — exposed a troubling gap between the program's managed custody model and the serious criminal profiles of those it was holding.
- Sheriff Roy Fikes moved swiftly to deploy deputies and partner agencies across the region, making clear that resident safety was the department's overriding concern.
- Authorities brought the public into the search almost immediately, issuing 911 alerts while explicitly warning residents not to approach the escapees — a caution that underscored the perceived danger.
- As the search expanded Saturday morning, the question of how four inmates walked out undetected remained unanswered, with a parallel investigation into the escape itself just beginning.
Four men walked out of the Perry County Correctional PREP Center in Uniontown, Alabama in the early hours of Saturday morning, and by the time the alarm reached law enforcement at approximately 1 a.m., the search was already underway. The four — Marquavious Billingsley, Jaden Christopher Maxwell, Johnny Dave Harris Bush Jr., and Kevin Gunn — were not minor offenders. Their charges collectively included murder, first-degree robbery, assault, breaking and entering vehicles, and promoting prison contraband. How they managed to leave the facility remained unclear in those first hours.
The PREP Center, which stands for Parole and Probation Reentry Education and Employment Program Center, housed the four men under a custody agreement with the Dallas County Sheriff's Department — an arrangement that made the breach all the more striking. Perry County Sheriff Roy Fikes responded quickly, mobilizing deputies and coordinating with agencies across multiple jurisdictions while simultaneously launching an investigation into the circumstances of the escape itself.
The public was drawn into the effort almost at once. Authorities issued alerts urging anyone with information to call 911, but paired that request with a firm warning: do not approach these men. The gravity of the charges — particularly the murder allegations — made clear that law enforcement viewed this as a serious public safety situation, not a routine flight risk.
As Saturday morning wore on and the search spread across central Alabama, two questions hung in the air: where the four men had gone, and how the security measures at a managed reentry facility had failed to stop them from leaving.
Four men walked out of a correctional facility in central Alabama in the dark hours of Saturday morning, and by the time authorities realized they were gone, the search had already begun. The Perry County Correctional PREP Center in Uniontown, a facility that houses inmates under an agreement with the Dallas County Sheriff's Department, reported the escape to law enforcement at approximately 1 a.m. The four men—Marquavious Billingsley, Jaden Christopher Maxwell, Johnny Dave Harris Bush Jr., and Kevin Gunn—were not low-level offenders. Between them, they faced charges that included murder, first-degree robbery, breaking and entering vehicles, first-degree escape, first-degree assault, and promoting prison contraband. The specifics of how they got out remained unclear in those first hours after the alarm was raised.
Perry County Sheriff Roy Fikes moved quickly to mobilize resources. In a statement released as the search expanded, he emphasized that the safety of county residents was the department's immediate concern. Deputies and assisting agencies from multiple jurisdictions were deployed to locate and apprehend the four men. The investigation into the circumstances of the escape itself was launched simultaneously, though authorities had not yet disclosed details about what had happened at the facility or how the men had managed to leave.
The public was brought into the effort almost immediately. Authorities issued an alert asking anyone with information about the whereabouts of the four escapees to call 911. But there was a critical caveat attached to that request: residents were explicitly warned not to approach or attempt to apprehend the men themselves. The charges they faced—particularly the murder allegations—made clear that these were not individuals to be treated as minor flight risks. The warning underscored the seriousness with which law enforcement viewed the situation.
The PREP Center, whose acronym stands for Parole and Probation Reentry Education and Employment Program Center, is designed to house individuals under specific custody arrangements. The fact that these four men were being held there under a Dallas County agreement meant they were part of a managed program, yet somehow the security measures in place had not prevented their departure. As Saturday morning progressed and the search continued across central Alabama, the focus remained on locating the four men before they could travel further or pose a direct threat to anyone in the region.
What had unfolded in those early morning hours at the facility, and how four inmates with serious criminal charges had managed to escape, remained to be determined. For now, law enforcement was operating in the immediate aftermath, deploying resources and asking the public for help while investigators began the work of understanding what had gone wrong.
Notable Quotes
The safety of Perry County residents is the top priority. Deputies and assisting agencies are actively engaged in efforts to locate and apprehend the escapees, and an investigation is currently underway.— Perry County Sheriff Roy Fikes
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
What made these four men particularly dangerous compared to other inmates?
The charges tell you most of it—murder is the threshold. When you're holding someone on a murder charge, you're holding someone accused of the most serious crime. Add first-degree robbery and assault to that mix, and you're looking at people with a pattern of violence, not just a single incident.
Why does it matter that they were in a PREP center specifically, rather than a regular prison?
PREP centers are designed for people in reentry programs—people working toward eventual release. The security posture is different. You're not running a maximum-security lockdown. That creates a different kind of vulnerability, especially if someone inside decides the time is right to leave.
The authorities warned people not to approach them. How real is that danger?
It's not a formality. These are people who've already been accused of violence. If they're desperate enough to escape, they're in a different mental state than someone serving out a sentence quietly. Telling the public to stay away is acknowledging that these men might do harm if cornered or confronted.
What happens next in a search like this?
You're looking at a widening net. First hours are critical—they're probably still close. But as time passes, the search area expands. You're coordinating across county lines, checking transportation routes, working with other agencies. It becomes a waiting game where someone spots them, or they make a mistake that gives them away.
Why release the names so quickly?
You want the public's eyes. Four specific faces, four specific names—that's more useful than a general alert. Someone might recognize them, might see them at a gas station or a relative's house. The faster you get that information out, the better your chances of finding them before they get too far.