Two escaped inmates who killed two prison guards on a Georgia prison bus were captured in rural Tennessee after a multi-state manhunt that ended with them being held at gunpoint by a local homeowner, reports the Associated Press.
Convicted armed robbers, Donnie Rowe and Ricky Dubose, were taken into custody Thursday near Shelbyville, a city about 60 miles southeast of Nashville.
“True bravery is what’s caused us to stand before you tonight to talk about a successful capture instead of a tragic accident,” said Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn. “So I’m totally grateful to everyone involved.”
The two inmates had been on the run since they overpowered the guards on a Georgia prison bus transporting 33 inmates early Tuesday morning. One of them fatally shot Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue before fleeing in a stolen car with the guards’ 9 mm handguns.
What followed was a three-day manhunt in which the escaped convicts stole at least four vehicles, held an elderly couple hostage in their own home, ransacked two houses, and led the police on a high-speed car chase.
The escapees shot at sheriff’s deputies during the chase on a Tennessee interstate, according to the report by the Associated Press, but none were injured.
Shortly after, Rowe and Dubose crashed the car and ran away.
A nearby homeowner noticed the two trying to steal his car, which was parked in the driveway. The men held them at gunpoint with the help of a neighbor until the sheriff’s department arrived to take them into custody.
“They will be brought to justice swiftly for their heinous crime against our officers,” Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Greg Dozier said in a news release.
Monica and Billue worked at Baldwin State Prison as transfer sergeants. They had been with the Georgia Department of Corrections since 2009 and 2007, respectively.
Investigators are still looking into how the escaped inmates got out of the secured area of the bus.