ATLANTA — Authorities were searching Friday morning for an inmate who escaped from custody while being taken to a state prison and residents in neighborhoods south of Atlanta’s airport were being asked to lock their doors.

Devonte Detuan Ross slipped away from a private transport company at a QuikTrip where they had stopped to get him something to eat, Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill said. Ross should still be cuffed in the front with waist chains unless he has found a way to release them, the sheriff said.

He was being taken to prison to serve time for burglary, narcotics dealing and violating his probation.

Police dogs were searching North Clayton High School and a nearby apartment complex. The area is just south of Atlanta’s airport, where authorities say an Arizona murder suspect escaped Thursday while being transported back to Arizona.

In the Thursday incident, Jsaan Carlos Strover had gotten away from two Maricopa County, Arizona, deputies at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport while they were dropping off a rental car. A local television news crew spotted Strover and flagged down police, resulting in the man being taken back into custody after a daylong search.