PUTNAM COUNTY, Ga. — The man who first encountered two escaped inmates as they jumped off a prison bus talked Friday for the first time about the armed carjacking.
Phillip Beasley told Channel 2’s Tom Jones that he thought he was going to die.
He says the prison transport bus was stopped on the road when he pulled up behind it. Then all of a sudden he saw two inmates with guns running towards him screaming, “Get out.”
“By the grace of God I’m here,” Beasley said.
Beasley said as the inmates ran toward him, he immediately thought about hugging his wife and kids.
“Cause I knew they were not going to have their daddy anymore,” he said.
It happened Tuesday morning on Highway 16 in Putnam County. Beasley was on his way to work. He says he would normally have his 3-year-old with him at the time, but luckily did not.
“(They yelled) get the hell out twice. All I said was OK,” he said.
Beasley says he didn't make eye contact with the prisoners. He got out of his green Honda Civic and waited.
“I was basically waiting and listening for a gunshot I guess,” he said.
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He then heard his car drive off.
Beasley dropped to his knees and prayed and then went to a nearby store and called 911.
He learned later two guards were killed.
“I am very sorry they lost their lives. I can't imagine what their families are going through,” he said. “Why they left me, I don’t know.”
Beasley is relieved Donnie Rowe and Ricky Dubose are in custody. They spent 60 hours on the run before their capture Thursday night in Tennessee.
He said he is still an emotional wreck reliving what happened and asking why he is still here.
“I haven’t sat and actually cried about it. I know I need to,” he said.
Beasley said he forgives the inmates for what they did to him.
“I’m not mad at them. I forgive them,” Beasley told Jones.
But he said he can’t say the same for what happened to the guards.
His stolen car, which was going to be a gift for his stepdaughter to drive to college, is totaled.
Cox Media Group
