Georgia inmates kill two guards in escape
Federal agencies assisting in hunt for fugitives
ATLANTA — A sheriff said officers were searching Tuesday for two inmates who got through a gate inside a prison bus, killed two guards and got away.
“My biggest worry is they’re going to kill somebody else,” Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said.
The two men overpowered and disarmed the guards as 33 inmates were being driven between prisons, Sills told reporters. One of them fatally shot both guards, and then they jumped out of the bus and carjacked a driver on a rural highway, Sills said.
“They are armed with 9 mm pistols that were taken from these correctional officers. They are dangerous beyond description,” the sheriff said.
Multiple agencies have contributed to a reward of $60,000 for information leading to the arrests of the two inmates, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Nelly Miles said.
The fugitives — Donnie Russell Rowe, serving life without parole, and Ricky Dubose, who has elaborate tattoos on his face and neck — were last seen getting into a “grass green,” four-door 2004 Honda Civic with the Georgia license plate number RBJ-6601 and driving west on state Highway 16 toward Eatonton, southeast of Atlanta.
Sills said the inmates got a head start by tossing the Honda driver’s cellphone and leaving the other 31 prisoners locked inside the bus. He predicted they would break into a house to change clothes and try to switch cars.
The slain guards were identified as Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue, both transfer sergeants at Baldwin State Prison.
How the two inmates managed to reach and overpower the guards remains under investigation, Sills said.
The guards were moving the inmates to a diagnostics center in Jackson, where their next placement was to be determined, Dozier said, adding that inmates do not know their transfer dates ahead of time.
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said federal resources are being committed to help catch the fugitives. The FBI and U.S. Marshals have joined the investigation, Sills said.
Both escaped inmates are serving long sentences for armed robbery and other crimes. The Department of Corrections said Rowe, 43, has been serving life without parole since 2002, and Dubose, 24, began a 20-year sentence in 2015.