Georgia · Fulton County Jail, Atlanta · Crime & Courts

Fulton County Jail Escape in Atlanta, GA: Demetrius Burkes Captured, Sheriff's Office Says

An inmate got out of the Fulton County Jail on Rice Street early Thursday. Three named newsrooms report the Fulton County Sheriff's Office identified him as Demetrius Burkes and said he was back in custody before 7:30 a.m. He is charged, not convicted.

What happened at the Fulton County Jail

An inmate escaped from the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta early Thursday morning, Aug. 13, 2026, and was taken back into custody roughly two and a half hours later. The Fulton County Sheriff's Office named him as Demetrius Burkes.

WSB-TV reported that "the entrance to the Fulton County Jail is blocked off for an investigation" and that "MARTA police say they were requested to assist in the search for an inmate." The same story reports that "just before 7:30 a.m., the Fulton County Sheriff's Office said the suspect was back in custody, identifying him as Demetrius Burkes."

Atlanta News First reported that "an escaped inmate was caught by Fulton County deputies Thursday morning, the sheriff's office confirmed to Atlanta News First," and that "the sheriff's office identified the inmate as Demetrius Burkes."

FOX 5 Atlanta reported that "a law enforcement search has come to an end after an inmate named Demetrius Burkes was captured early Thursday morning, according to the Fulton County Sheriff's Office."

Three newsrooms, three separate owners, one agency and one name. That is about as firm as a breaking story gets in its first three hours.

The name: Demetrius Burkes

Demetrius Burkes. All three outlets carry that spelling, and all three attribute the identification to the Fulton County Sheriff's Office rather than to a reporter's own sourcing.

We publish the name because a named agency released it and three named newsrooms printed it. We are not publishing an age, an address, a hometown, a physical description or a booking photograph, because none of those appear in the record compiled for this page.

The two clock times in the record

This story has exactly two clock times, and they come from different places. Keeping them apart matters.

The escape: around 5 a.m. WSB-TV reported that MARTA police were asked to assist in the search for Burkes, "who escaped around 5 a.m."

The capture: just before 7:30 a.m. WSB-TV reported the sheriff's office said Burkes was back in custody "just before 7:30 a.m." FOX 5 Atlanta reported that "shortly before 7:30 a.m., the Fulton County Sheriff's Office confirmed they had 'located and apprehended inmate Demetrius Burkes.'"

"Just before" and "shortly before" describe the same moment, and neither outlet pins it to the minute. We are not converting them into a precise duration. Roughly two and a half hours separated the reported escape from the reported capture, and both ends of that span are approximate because the agency's own language is.

Timeline of Thursday morning

Here is the sequence as the three newsrooms describe it, each step carrying the outlet that reported it. Steps without a clock time are ordered by how the coverage describes the search unfolding, not by any published timestamp.

Schematic sequence, not a survey of movements. The only clock times in the record compiled for this page are the roughly 5 a.m. escape reported by WSB-TV and the just-before-7:30 a.m. confirmation reported by WSB-TV and FOX 5 Atlanta.

Rice Street, then the Garnett MARTA station

Two locations appear in the coverage, one search phase apart.

The jail itself. WSB-TV reported that Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach "is outside the jail on Rice Street, where patrol vehicles were stationed," and that Gehlbach "also saw Atlanta police vehicles in the area and at the Greyhound Station not far from the jail." Atlanta News First reported that "multiple Atlanta police cruisers and Fulton County deputies' vehicles blocked off roads leading to the jail on Rice Street."

Downtown. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that "a FOX 5 crew saw officers posted near the entrance to the Fulton County Jail early Thursday morning while investigators searched the surrounding area with flashlights," and that "the officers later left the jail and headed toward downtown Atlanta, where authorities were seen searching in the area of the Garnett MARTA station." Atlanta News First reported "a large police presence near the Garnett MARTA Station."

The Greyhound facility and the Garnett station are two different points named by two different newsrooms. We are not merging them into one perimeter, and no source in the record compiled for this page says where Burkes was actually found.

Three agencies, and why they are not the same

Three law enforcement bodies appear in this morning's coverage, and readers routinely treat them as interchangeable. In a story about a jail, the distinction is the point: the agency that runs the building is the agency that speaks for what happened inside it.

What MARTA Police said about the canvass

The MARTA detail is the one piece of this morning attributed directly to an agency other than the sheriff's office, so it is worth quoting rather than paraphrasing. WSB-TV reported: "MARTA police confirmed they had officers canvassing stations near the jail after they were asked by the Fulton County Sheriff's Office to assist in the search for Burkes, who escaped around 5 a.m."

Read the mechanics in that sentence. A request went from one agency to another, and MARTA Police canvassed stations — checked them — rather than closing them. No station closing, train hold or rider delay appears in the record compiled for this page. If you rode the system this morning and saw officers on a platform, that sentence is the explanation.

Why Burkes was in the jail, per jail records

Two outlets describe the jail record, and they describe different parts of it. Both are below, unmerged.

Atlanta News First reported: "Jail records show he was taken into custody on Tuesday and charged with theft by taking."

FOX 5 Atlanta reported: "According to Fulton County Jail records, Burkes has an extensive criminal history, including theft and drug charges."

Those sentences do different jobs. One is a date and a charge. The other is a characterization of a record — FOX 5 Atlanta's characterization, not a list of cases and not a list of convictions. We print it because a named outlet published it, and we tell you exactly what it is: a summary of charges, and charges are accusations. No source here gives a case number, a court date or a bond amount.

Charged is not convicted

Demetrius Burkes has been charged. He has not been convicted of anything described on this page. Theft by taking, as reported by Atlanta News First, is an allegation recorded on a jail booking sheet. A booking record establishes that someone was arrested and what an officer accused them of. It establishes nothing about guilt.

A jail record is the earliest and least tested document in the whole criminal process, preceding any prosecutor's review, grand jury, defense lawyer, hearing or verdict. People sit in jail on charges later reduced, dismissed outright, or never presented to a court at all. So this page will not call Burkes a thief, will not call him a criminal, and will not adopt any adjective about him that a named source did not publish first.

Is there an escape charge?

No new charge appears anywhere in the record compiled for this page.

That deserves emphasis, because it is the likeliest place for a reader to guess. It is intuitive to assume an inmate who leaves a jail and is brought back is immediately charged with something new. We are not going to assume it. All three stories describe the escape and the capture. We have seen no charge, warrant or court date arising from it.

We are also not naming a Georgia code section. Citing a statute no source has connected to this case would be us building the accusation, which is not our job.

Three wordings of one confirmation

The confirmation reaches readers in three forms. WSB-TV renders it as a summary: the sheriff's office "said the suspect was back in custody." FOX 5 Atlanta renders it as a direct quotation: the office had "located and apprehended inmate Demetrius Burkes." Atlanta News First renders it as a confirmation made to that newsroom, and carries a clause of its own — the inmate was caught "by Fulton County deputies."

All three agree on the outcome. The naming of the arresting deputies comes from Atlanta News First, so that detail sits in the table below rather than being folded into a sentence.

Where our three sources differ

Each cell shows what that outlet published on the point. An em dash means we have nothing to put there.

There is no contradiction in that table. Every difference in it is a difference of detail rather than a conflict of fact, which is not always how these mornings go.

What we don't know yet

Nothing above is filled in by inference.

How to request records from the sheriff

The Fulton County Sheriff's Office operates the jail, so booking and incident records are requested from the county, not from a city police department. The sheriff's office instructs the public to "submit ALL Open Records requests to the Fulton County Open Records Requests Center," and lists the agency at 185 Shirley C. Franklin Blvd. SW, Atlanta, GA 30303, phone (404) 612-5100.

• Use the county portal. Requests go through the Fulton County Open Records Requests Center, not to the sheriff's office directly.
• Create an account if you are a new user, then describe the records you want.
• Choose "Sheriff" from the department dropdown, so the request routes to the right agency.
• Booking photos need a form — a Booking Photo Release Affirmation Form, attached to the request.

On cost, Fulton County's sheriff records page states that "there is no charge for the first fifteen minutes," that copies run "$.10 per page" with "no charge for producing 10 pages or less," and that "an estimated cost will be provided prior to production of your documents."

Attention: records tied to a pending charge or an open internal review are routinely withheld until the matter closes. That is the standard posture across Georgia agencies.

What this page will not do

We will not characterize Demetrius Burkes. No adjective about him appears here that a named source did not publish first. We are not describing him as dangerous, and no agency in the record compiled for this page described him that way either.

We will not tell you the public was at risk, and we are not telling you the opposite. Both would be conclusions we have no basis to draw.

We will not reconstruct earlier versions of these stories. Breaking coverage gets rewritten in place through the morning, and quoting a sentence an outlet has since replaced sends readers to a link that no longer contains it. Every quotation here was read at the source's own address this morning.

And this page does not update itself. It records what three named newsrooms had established as of the timestamp below. For the current status, go to the Fulton County Sheriff's Office.

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Frequently asked questions

Who escaped from the Fulton County Jail?
The Fulton County Sheriff's Office identified the inmate as Demetrius Burkes. WSB-TV, Atlanta News First and FOX 5 Atlanta all attribute that identification to the sheriff's office.

Has the Fulton County Jail escapee been caught?
Yes. WSB-TV reported that just before 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, the sheriff's office said the suspect was back in custody and identified him as Demetrius Burkes. FOX 5 Atlanta reported the office confirmed shortly before 7:30 a.m. that it had located and apprehended inmate Demetrius Burkes. Atlanta News First reported he was caught by Fulton County deputies.

What time did the Fulton County Jail escape happen?
WSB-TV reported that Burkes escaped around 5 a.m. That is the only escape time in the record compiled for this page, and it is approximate as published.

Where is the Fulton County Jail?
On Rice Street in Atlanta, Georgia. WSB-TV placed its reporter outside the jail on Rice Street, and Atlanta News First reported that police vehicles blocked roads leading to the jail on Rice Street.

What was Demetrius Burkes charged with?
Atlanta News First reported that jail records show he was taken into custody on Tuesday and charged with theft by taking. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that, according to Fulton County Jail records, Burkes has an extensive criminal history including theft and drug charges. Those are charges. He has not been convicted of anything described here.

Is Demetrius Burkes charged with escape?
No new charge appears anywhere in the record compiled for this page. None of the three stories we read states a charge, warrant or court date arising from the escape itself, and The Local Alert is not going to assume one exists.

Which agencies searched for the Fulton County Jail escapee?
Three appear in the coverage. The Fulton County Sheriff's Office confirmed the escape and the capture and requested assistance. MARTA Police confirmed to WSB-TV that officers were canvassing stations near the jail at the sheriff's request. Atlanta police vehicles were reported at and around the jail by WSB-TV and Atlanta News First. These are three separate agencies.

Was the Garnett MARTA station involved?
FOX 5 Atlanta reported that officers left the jail, headed toward downtown Atlanta and were seen searching in the area of the Garnett MARTA station. Atlanta News First reported a large police presence near the Garnett MARTA Station.

Was MARTA service affected?
No service disruption appears in the record compiled for this page. WSB-TV reported that MARTA Police had officers canvassing stations near the jail. Canvassing a station is checking it, not closing it.

How did Demetrius Burkes escape from the Fulton County Jail?
That is not established. No source in the record compiled for this page describes the method, the route or the point of exit, and The Local Alert will not speculate about how someone left a secure building.

Was anyone hurt in the Fulton County Jail escape?
No injury to an inmate, a deputy, an officer or a member of the public appears in any of the three stories compiled for this page.

Who runs the Fulton County Jail?
The Fulton County Sheriff's Office, a county agency distinct from the Atlanta Police Department and from MARTA Police. It is the agency that confirmed both the escape and the capture in this case.

How do I request records about this from the Fulton County Sheriff's Office?
The sheriff's office instructs the public to submit all open records requests to the Fulton County Open Records Requests Center rather than to the agency directly. Create an account, describe the records you want and choose Sheriff from the department dropdown. Booking photo requests require a Booking Photo Release Affirmation Form. Fulton County's sheriff records page states there is no charge for the first fifteen minutes and that copies are $.10 per page, with no charge for producing 10 pages or less.