Murder suspect mistakenly released from jail after ‘cybersecurity incident’

Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on February 2, 2024

(ATLANTA) — Authorities in Georgia are searching for 30-year-old murder suspect Zion River Shaka, who was mistakenly released by Clayton County authorities last week, according to ABC affiliate WSB in Atlanta.

Last week, Shaka was transferred from the Fulton County Jail and sent to the custody of the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office for a scheduled hearing with instructions to return to the Fulton County Jail afterward, however, he was mistakenly released after the hearing, according to WSB.

Shaka has been in Fulton County Jail since 2020, ABC News confirmed, though details of his case have not been released.

Deputies are reportedly actively searching for Shaka’s whereabouts.

This week, officials in Fulton County said court and other systems in Georgia’s most populous county were hacked over the weekend, interrupting routine operations.

Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, was experiencing a “widespread system outage” from a “cybersecurity incident,” County Commission Chair Robb Pitts said Monday in a video posted on social media. Notably, he said, the outage is affecting the county’s phone, court and tax systems.