A series of security lapses allowed two dangerous inmates on a Georgia prison transport bus to free themselves from their chains and get to two correctional officers' guns, which the prisoners then used to kill the two guards, according to a report released Friday.
The report provides the first detailed accounting of how convicted armed robbers Donnie Rowe and Ricky Dubose allegedly killed officers Curtis Billue and Christopher Monica, both sergeants, before fleeing. The escape more than six weeks ago spurred a multi-state manhunt that ended in high-speed car chase with bullets flying.
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Investigators found that Billue and Monica made a series of deadly mistakes as they transported 33 inmates from two prisons to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison near Jackson on the morning of June 13.
The lapses included:
- The heavy mesh gate that separates officers from the inmates they were transporting was not locked.
- The handcuffs of Rowe and Dubose were not "double locked," which allowed Dubose to free his hands.
- Twice the prisoners on the bus were left unattended. During one of those times, one of the inmates crept into the front compartment to fetch an officer's lunch, their coffee and cigarettes.
- Neither officer was wearing his gun as required. Instead, the Glocks were in a box behind the officers in the front compartment.
- They were transporting inmates before daybreak, which violates the rules.
- Inmates were not searched before they were put on the bus, so the officers did not find a toothbrush or a pen that Rowe used to dislodge the unlocked padlock and open the gate.
- The inmates were moving freely about in the back area, and the officers didn't seem to notice.
- The video captured one of the inmates telling the others that the door was open and was not locked.
- Neither officer was wearing a protective vest.
- An internal reviews found, "There were no findings in insufficiency in training curriculum as presented, only non-compliance."
- Road noise and the engine made it impossible to hear what was happening in the inmate area.
- Only one of 13 interior lights on the bus was working.
- Investigators found no evidence that any corrections staff helped the two inmates plan or carry out the escape.
The information came from interviews with inmates who were on the bus, as well as from video recordings made inside the bus. There was an external review by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Public Safety and the Department of Natural Resources. Corrections staff conducted an internal review, which include recommended changes.
“I am determined not to allow an event like this to occur again,” Corrections Commissioner Greg Dozier said Friday.
Credit: Chad Rhym
Credit: Chad Rhym
The brazen escape on Georgia 16 between Sparta and Eatonton left many in eastern and middle Georgia, as well as throughout the state and the Southeast, in fear.
From early that Tuesday morning until the evening of the following Thursday, local, state and federal law enforcement searched for the two fugitives. Both were serving sentences that did not allow for parole.
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According to police, Rowe and Dubose stole a green Honda driven by a man who had pulled up behind the stopped bus.
Later that day, the two allegedly broke into a house in Madison a little more than 20 miles away, taking clothes and food. On the second day of the manhunt Rowe and Dubose stole a pickup truck from a closed Morgan County business. A nearby surveillance camera recorded fuzzy images of them getting on Interstate 20 heading toward Atlanta.
On Thursday, June 15, the third day of the manhunt, they ditched the truck near Lynchburg, Tenn. and stole a Mercury Cougar they found in a barn in Moore County, Tenn..
They ditched the Cougar behind a mound of gravel beside a highway, just a few yards from the Shelbyville, Tenn., home where the two allegedly held an elderly couple hostage for about three hours.
Their capture was set in motion when Rowe and Dubose left in the couple’s Jeep. The woman freed herself and called 911.
Soon, a deputy spotted the stolen Jeep on Interstate 24 in an adjoining county, prompting a 20-mile chase during which shots were fired.
Rowe and Dubose wrecked and fled through some woods, surrendering to a homeowner in a nearby clearing.
District Attorney Stephen Bradley, the prosecutor in the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit which includes Putnam County, said the pair will be indicted in September and then he will announce that he intends to seek the death penalty against them.
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