Sheriff leading manhunt for escapees: ‘We expect to be assassinated at any time’

The manhunt is expanding across the country to find the armed escapees accused of killing two prison guards.

During a midday news conference Thursday, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills responded to a question about officers’ safety in a potential shootout as they hunt for Ricky Dubose and Donnie Rowe, who have been on the run since early Tuesday morning.

Sills, who has more than four decades in law enforcement, pointed to the black memorial band on his badge.

“It’s been on this badge the past year more than any time I can remember,” he said. “We have grown to expect this every second of every day. We expect to be assassinated at any time.”

The FBI has launched a nationwide media campaign to alert the public about Dubose and Rowe, who are armed with the officers’ weapons.

Tips can be called into a special hotline at 877-WANTED2. The reward pool in the case climbed past $125,000 Thursday.

David LeValley, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Atlanta division, said the public’s help is crucial.

“We need the eyes and ears of everyone in this country to be on the lookout for these two individuals,” LeValley said. “As long as they are out, they will pose a threat to the communities they are in.”

Sills said there were no “active searches” as of early Thursday afternoon, but authorities are “looking for them anywhere they might be on this planet.”

By the time a Ford F-250 was reported stolen Wednesday morning in Morgan County, the inmates charged with killing two prison guards were long gone.

“Obviously, you could be almost anywhere in America,” said Sills, who is leading the investigation into the deaths of Georgia Department of Corrections officers Curtis Billue and Chris Monica.

Baldwin State Prison inmates were being transferred to another facility when two of them apparently got through a barrier in the transport bus, overpowered the guards and got a gun.

“They brutally shot those officers multiple times,” Sills said.

The other 31 inmates on the bus provided “vital information” in the early stages of the investigation.

The officers were killed onboard the bus that was transporting 33 inmates along Ga. 16 between Sparta and Eatonton just before 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Sills would not comment on how they broke through the barrier, saying they are focused on capturing the “vicious hoodlums” and will withhold details that could jeopardize prosecution.

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

They left behind the driver’s cellphone, which could have helped trace their whereabouts.

The dark green car was under a heavy canopy of trees and could not be spotted by air.

“It couldn’t be seen at all,” he said. “I had been within 40 yards of that car and I didn’t even see it.”

An officer on foot found the vehicle as authorities searched a one-mile radius from the house intensely.

Tracking dogs were initially on the trail, but it grew cold.

“They walked nearly nine miles and actually walked in the creek bed,” Sills said.

After the Ford F-250 was reported stolen, authorities viewed surveillance footage from a nearby store that showed them walking by before 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Thirty to 40 minutes later, the camera showed them driving past in the pickup, Sills said.

A reward for information leading to the arrests of Dubose and Rowe is up to $130,000.

Sills said the fund continues to grow as law enforcement agencies pony up money seized in other crimes.

The New York State Corrections Officers Police Benevolent Fund contributed, as did a private business, Correct Care, that works in the prison system, he said.

Sills praised the law enforcement response as “the greatest effort I’ve ever seen.”

The escapees have ties to northeast Georgia and Tennessee, but they could be anywhere, he said.

“The public is in grave danger,” the sheriff said.

He warned that anyone who might be helping the escapees elude authorities could be charged as a party to their crimes.

If the inmates were listening to the news conference, the sheriff had a message: “You need to surrender. You will be apprehended.”

This story was originally published June 15, 2017 at 12:36 PM with the headline "Sheriff leading manhunt for escapees: ‘We expect to be assassinated at any time’."