RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tenn.– The homeowner who helped capture two escapees from Georgia addressed the media Friday afternoon less than 24 hours after the terrifying incident played out in his driveway.
Donnie Rowe and Ricky Dubose were captured after a foot chase ended in Rutherford County Thursday evening.
“We are very thankful to be in this situation versus the other families involved,” said homeowner Patrick Hale.
Hale, 35, said he received a warning call from a friend and quickly loaded every weapon in his home as a precaution before seeing the fugitives crossing a barb wire fence about 300 yards away.
He said he then called 911 and grabbed his daughter.Hale said as he and his family were leaving Rowe and Dub
ose, who had been running, stopped near his home.“I prayed like I never prayed before,” he said.
Hale added the men took off their shirts and starting waving them at him in an attempt to get him to slow down.
“For some reason they started to surrender on my concrete driveway,” Hale said. “If that doesn’t make you believe in Jesus, I don’t know what will.”
He said the men could have stopped because his car looks similar to a police cruiser, though he was not sure.
Hale said police arrived within three minutes of his call to 911.
The Rutherford County man said the two men never said a word as they laid there.“Hearing you are a hero because you simply called 911 is something,” Hale said. “Even though we had guns we didn’t have to use them and that’s a God thing.”
Hale though said one thing was going through his mind at the time, “I had a truck that was recently filled up with gas and a shotgun in the front seat that I left there.”
Hale said he was not aware of the reward money until someone else told him about it.
