SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WXIA) -- Authorities say they have captured two escaped inmates wanted in the slayings of two Georgia prison guards.
GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles says 43-year-old Donnie Russell Rowe and 24-year-old Ricky Dubose were apprehended Thursday in Christiana, Tennessee.
CAPTURED: Fugitives in custody following car chase in TN. More info will be forthcoming.
— Governor Nathan Deal (@GovernorDeal) June 16, 2017
The inmates were being hunted in the killings Tuesday morning of two prison guards who were overpowered, disarmed and shot to death on a prison bus southeast of Atlanta.
Baldwin State Prison transfer sergeants Christopher Monica and Curtis Billue were slain. Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills called the fugitive inmates "dangerous beyond description."
Authorities had offered a $130,000 reward for information leading to their arrests.
The Jasper County, S.C. Sheriff's Office has suspended its search for two Georgia prison escapees after reported sightings there.
The sheriff's office posted on its Facebook page:
"After in depth search and interviews with the original callers it has been determined that the subjects were more than likely not the subjects wanted out of Georgia. Search operations have been suspended."
A statewide-turned-nationwide manhunt has been underway since Tuesday, when authorities say Ricky Dubose and Donnie Russell Rowe who were being transported on a Georgia Department of Corrections bus filled with 33 prisoners, overpowered and killed two officers and fled.
Veteran correctional officers Christopher Monica, 42, and Curtis Billue, 58, were killed near Eatonton, Ga., around 6:45 a.m.
Dubose and Rowe then stole the Honda Civic of a man who happened upon the scene and fled. Hours later, authorities said the two broke into a home in Madison and stole clothes and food.
Sometime that night, a white F-250 was stolen in the Seven Islands Road area of Morgan County. The vehicle is described as a 2008, two-door model with silver tool boxes on both side rails. The Georgia license plate is BCX5372.
'The public is in grave danger'
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said Thursday that the reward for information on the fugitives has been increased to $130,000.
“This is the greatest effort, I’ve ever seen,” Sills said. “Our focus right now is to apprehend these two dangerous criminals.”
