PUTNAM COUNTY, Ga. — Two inmates are on the run after authorities say they overpowered and killed two correctional officers in Putnam County.
Departments across Georgia are sending their condolences after the officers were killed.
Ricky Dubose and Donnie Rowe, who have long histories of violent crimes, are considered dangerous and should not be approached, authorities said.
There is now a $70,000 reward being offered.
Ricky Dubose
The 24-year-old is described as being 6 feet tall, weighing 150 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes.
According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Dubose is a member of the Ghostface
Gangsters, which was described as a prison Aryan gang.
Dubose was serving a sentence of up to 20 years for a 2014 armed robbery and aggravated assault in Elbert County.
Records show his first known violent crime as an adult was a snatch-and-grab robbery that occurred in Gwinnett County.
His lawyer for that case, Giles Sexton, told Channel 2’s Tony Thomas that he remembers Dubose as a young, frightened kid.
“I remember Rickey as being a somewhat younger person who was scared of the legal system when I represented him,” Sexton said.
In 2011, a fresh-faced Dubose entered a guilty plea to the charges that he and a buddy drove to a Hamilton Mill-area Walmart and robbed a woman.
While Dubose waited in a stolen SUV, his friend ran up to a 61-year-old woman and grabbed her purse, stealing her phone and credit cards.
While only 18, Dubose had already entered a plea to another robbery in Clarke County.
Sexton told the judge at the time, "most of this was the result of trying to support a drug habit."
“Oftentimes, it scares the youthful offenders. He didn't have a significant past when I represented him,” Sexton told Thomas.
Dubose's 10-year sentence, to serve three years, would be commuted by the prison system as he served a year and a half for other crimes.
Records show he'd be back behind bars about a year later for crimes in Madison and Elbert counties.
Sexton said he's surprised at the apparent turn of events for Dubose, who he thought had a chance to turn his life around.
“Apparently, he's made some other stops along the way,” Sexton told Thomas.
Besides the Walmart robbery, there doesn't seem to be any indication in public records of Dubose having a connection to Gwinnett County or metro Atlanta.
Capt. Darren Scarborough, of the Elbert County Sheriff’s Office, said Dubose took $100 from an acquaintance at gunpoint and shot him in the hand.
“He’s off the chain,” Scarborough said. “He’s just a loose cannon. He’s well-known to us.”
Scarborough said Dubose’s mother, brother and girlfriend live in Madison County, which adjoins Elbert County.
He said local police and deputies were “out in force” and ready to help Putnam look for Rowe and Dubose.
“He’s very dangerous and he has nothing to lose and I think he will go down in a blaze of glory,” Scarborough said. “And that’s sad because some officer will have to answer for shooting him.”
Dubose is from Madison County, Georgia.
Donnie Rowe
The 43-year-old is described as being 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighing 150 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes.
According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Rowe was assigned to the Valdosta State Prison.
Rowe was convicted of aggravated assault, armed robbery and possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
According to the Macon Telegraph, Rowe was convicted of a 2001 armed robbery at the Super 8 motel on Arkwright Road in Macon.
Rowe and an accomplice robbed two men they met at a strip club in Atlanta that night, the Telegraph said. Rowe and the other man also were charged with a robbery at the I-75 South rest stop in Monroe County on their way to Macon.
Rowe had two prior convictions for burglary, robbery and grand theft auto and was sentenced in 2002 to life without parole, followed by an additional five years, according to the Telegraph.
Rowe is from Lewisburg, Tennessee.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Macon Telegraph contributed to this article.
Cox Media Group
