Authorities say escaped Georgia inmates caught in Tennessee

Two inmates accused of shooting to death a pair of armed guards during an escape from a prison bus in Georgia were captured on Thursday in Tennessee.

Donnie Russell Rowe, 43, and Ricky Dubose, 24, were taken into custody Thursday after two residents held them at gunpoint whey they discovered the men were trying to steal a vehicle from a central Tennessee home, Lt. Bill Miller from the Tennessee Highway Patrol said late Friday.

Jasper County Sheriff Chris Malphrus said law enforcement has received reports of two men matching the description of the escaped inmates from Georgia being spotted at a rest area at mile marker 17 on Interstate 95.

Fugitives in custody following auto chase in TN.

Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Greg Dozier said in a news release that he was relieved the two inmates were captured and no longer a threat to the public.

Since their escape, there had been numerous reported sightings, and authorities had offered a reward for their capture.

Dubose and Rowe hijacked a Honda Civic that was recovered Wednesday afternoon in a wooded area off US 441, not far from a burglary where the men changed out of their prison uniforms and ransacked a house.

The pair had been on the run since Tuesday when they allegedly overpowered two correctional officers while they were driving a transport bus and shot and killed them.

The officers were killed onboard the bus that was transporting 33 inmates along Ga. Rowe and Dubose crashed the auto and ran on foot into dense woods.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesman Josh DeVine said the bureau's agents will take part in processing the scene.

Authorities say escaped Georgia inmates caught in Tennessee

Sills thanked the Rutherford and Bedford County sheriff's offices and all local and federal agencies that worked to apprehend the men.

The FBI is rolling out what it calls "a significant media effort" including "a nationwide billboard campaign" to appeal for help from the public in tracking down two inmates sought in the killings of their guards on a Georgia prison bus.

The reward for their capture had been posted at $130,000.

The Williams Funeral Home & Crematory website shows that the service for 42-year-old Sgt. Christopher Monica will take place at 2 p.m. next Tuesday at First United Methodist Church in Milledgeville.

Dubose and Rowe stole a truck in Madison, Georgia, and ditched it about 260 miles away in Moore County, Tennessee, on Thursday, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said. My honest thanks to our local, state and federal law enforcement officers who assisted in the manhunt. 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.

Jones County Sheriff R.N.

Sills said the two inmates got a head start by taking and tossing the Honda driver's cellphone and locking the other 31 prisoners inside the bus.

"They brutally shot those officers multiple times", Sills said.

The couple suffered minor injuries from the rope used to tie them up and one of them was choked at one point when he tried to escape.