Manhunt: Ga. inmates kill guards, escape by carjack
The two, serving time for armed robbery, flee in stolen Honda Civic after seizing slain officers’ handguns
Authorities launched a nationwide manhunt Tuesday after two Georgia inmates shot two guards to death on a prison transport bus before carjacking their way to freedom.
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said inmates Donnie Russell “Whiskey” Rowe, 43, and Ricky Dubose, 24, fled from the bus near Eatonton, about 70 miles southeast of Atlanta. Sills said investigators were trying to determine how the killers got into the driver’s compartment.
An emotional Sills said inmates overpowered, disarmed and shot the guards before escaping in a carjacked “grass green” 2004 Honda Civic. He said he feared the killers, armed with the officers’ semiautomatic handguns, would kill again.
“I saw two brutally murdered corrections officers,” Sills said at a news conference hours after the shootings. “I have their blood on my shoes.”
The Honda driver told authorities that he stopped when he saw the parked bus and that the inmates robbed him at gunpoint, Sills said. The driver, who was unharmed and flagged down the next car for help, was considered a victim, Sills said.
The bus had more than 30 inmates aboard, but no others fled the scene. Sills said some provided information to investigators. The bus was equipped with a surveillance camera; Sills said the video would not be released.
Dubose is serving a 20-year sentence for armed robbery, aggravated assault and theft from a 2014 case. Rowe has been in prison since 2002 with convictions including armed robbery, possession of a firearm during a crime and aggravated assault.
“We are searching everywhere in America,” Sills said. “There are sheriff ’s officers, U.S. marshals fanning out all over this nation.”
The corrections department identified the victims as Christopher Monica, 42, who began working there in 2009, and Curtis Billue, 58, who would have marked his 10th anniversary with the department next month.
“Remembering our two Baldwin State Prison officers tragically killed today,” the department posted on Twitter.
Corrections Commissioner Greg Dozier described Monica and Billue as “great officers.” Dozier said the phone call alerting him to their deaths hit hard: “My heart is still in the soles of my shoes.”
Dozier said the bus was en route from Baldwin to a diagnostic facility. He said two armed guards is standard protocol for such trips. Baldwin is a mediumsecurity prison in Hardwick about 25 miles south of Eatonton.
Authorities urged people not to approach the men if they see them but to call 911. The U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation were among agencies involved in the manhunt.
“Today, two families lost everything in a heinous and senseless act of violence perpetrated at the hands of cowards,” Gov. Nathan Deal said.
“I saw two brutally murdered corrections officers. ... I have their blood on my shoes.” Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills