Georgia fugitives Donnie Russell Rowe, 43, and Ricky Dubose, 24, were captured following a car and a foot chase in Tennessee on Thursday. The Baldwin State Prison inmates are accused of overpowering, then, shooting and killing two correctional officers with their own guns on a prison transport bus Tuesday morning. The pair escaped, carjacked a Honda Civic, and, later, stole a Ford pickup truck. They were armed with the officers’ Glock pistols.
After a high-speed car chase, reaching up to 100 miles per hour, and an exchange of gunfire (around 20 shots), Rowe and Dubose were captured off Interstate 24.
After the duo escaped into the wood line Thursday evening, a local man held them at gunpoint. They attempted to steal his car, according to a spokesman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Their capture was confirmed in a statement by Greg Dozier, Georgia Corrections Commissioner.
Picking up new lead when fugitives’ trail grew cold
Following a string of false sightings in South Carolina on Wednesday, their trail was cold, according to authorities. Raising the reward to $130,000 for information leading to the escapees’ arrest is how the FBI and Georgia Bureau Of Investigation responded.
Before their capture, Rowe and Dubose provided a lead when they tied up an elderly couple in their home in Shelbyville, TN.
They held guns to the couple’s heads and threatened their lives. After eating soup in the couple’s house and stealing clothes and valuables, they left in the couple’s black Jeep Cherokee, according to Sheriff Austin Swing, Bedford County, TN.
The escapees intended to take the woman with them as use her as both a hostage and driver but her car wouldn’t start.
Instead, they gagged her and they tied her up. They bound the man with belts. They also put socks over his hands. They didn’t want him to be able to use his fingers. They couple did untie themselves and called the police. Swing knows the couple personally. He said they are extremely traumatized. Their family is with them.
Homeowner held the escapees at gunpoint
Within an hour of taking off in the couple’s Jeep, the escapees were spotted. The high-speed chase ensued on Interstate 24. They crashed the vehicle and ran into the woods, on foot, they lost police momentarily. Then, they came to a home where they tried to steal a car. That’s when the homeowner went outside and held the fugitives at gunpoint until a neighbor arrived and assisted. The police were called and the escapees were arrested.
Law enforcement’s response to the prison inmates’ escape was multi-agency and included Georgia Bureau of Investigation, FBI, ATF, and U.S. Marshals Service.
Dozier said Rowe and Dubose will be brought to justice swiftly for their “heinous crime” against slain corrections officers Christopher Monica, 42, and Curtis Billue, 58.
Billue was with the Georgia Department of Corrections since July 2007 and Monica since October 2009.
There is a GoFundMe page established for Monica, who is survived by his wife and two daughters, as well as his grandchildren. The page describes him as a great man and states that he prayed daily for criminals and “sadly he ended up dying at the hands of two” on Tuesday.
