ATLANTA — Two Georgia inmates who killed their guards and escaped from a prison bus have stolen a second vehicle as they try to stay ahead of a massive manhunt, a sheriff said Wednesday.

Donnie Russell Rowe, serving life without parole, and Ricky Dubose, who began a 20-year sentence in 2015, took a white pickup truck from an industrial site sometime between 6 p.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday, potentially enabling them to get hours away before the theft was discovered, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said.

Sills described the fugitives, who took the guards’ 9 mm pistols, as violent repeat offenders and extremely dangerous. He urged anyone who sees them to call 911 immediately.

“They just murdered two corrections officers in a brutal fashion,” Sills said. “They’re not concerned with anything regarding human life.”

Immediately after the killings early Tuesday, the pair carjacked a driver who happened to pull up behind the bus on a rural highway. They took off with the Honda driver’s phone, leaving 31 other inmates locked in the bus with the two dead guards, and were gone by the time help arrived.

Hours later, authorities converged on the small city of Madison, about 25 miles to the north, where they determined the fugitives had ransacked a house around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. Sills said the fugitives took some food and likely some clothes, since they left their prison uniforms behind.

Authorities put up roadblocks, only to discover Wednesday morning that the pickup had been stolen, about 9 miles from the burglary. Now authorities are searching for a 2008 white Ford F250 pickup truck with the Georgia tag BCX-5372. The Honda was found later, intentionally hidden in woods not far from the burglarized house, Sills said.

Sills agreed with reporters that Dubose will have trouble hiding his prominent tattoos, which include crowns above his eyebrows, a star below his right ear and graffiti-style letters all across his neck. Sills said Dubose also has “ghost” tattooed on his right forefinger and “face” on his right pinky finger – signs of membership in the Ghost Face Gangsters.

Both escaped inmates were serving long sentences for armed robbery and other crimes.


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