The suspects were identified as Ricky Alan Dubose, 24, of Roy Woods Road, Comer, and Donnie Russell Rowe, 43, who had a Macon address, but prison records show he is from Lewisburg, Tenn.
The US Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are involved along with several other agencies.
A statewide manhunt has been underway since early Tuesday, when authorities said the two prisoners being transported on a bus were able to overpower the guards before killing them and escaping. The bus transporting the men was a new model, and Dozier said that it was standard protocol to have two armed guards inside, protected by a locked gate.
The agency is urging people not to approach the men and to call 911 if they spot the pair.
The inmates on the bus were being moved from a state prison in Hancock County to a diagnostics center in Jackson, where their next placement was to be determined, Dozier said, adding that inmates do not know their transfer dates ahead of time. The Oconee Enterprise also reported Dubose and Rowe were suspected of robbing a bank in Madison on Tuesday afternoon.
The correctional officers killed were identifed as Christopher Monica, 42, an eight-year veteran and Curtis Billue, 58, a 10-year veteran. Authorities said they broke into a home in Madison before slipping away again.
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They carjacked a driver, who pulled up behind the bus that stopped on a rural highway, according to Sills.
The names of the prison guards and inmates haven't been released. We have 32 inmates getting off the bus'. Sills told reporters he believed they had left the county, and that the search had extended to "everywhere in America". They fled after they changed out of their prison uniforms and into the stolen clothing.
Later Tuesday, the manhunt shifted about 25 miles (40 kilometres) to the north to the city of Madison, where two men fitting their description were seen entering a Family Dollar store less than a mile (1.6 kilometre) from a house that was burglarized.
Donnie Rowe, the older of the two escaped prisoners, has the more violent history.
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks line of duty deaths, the two Georgia guards are the third and fourth corrections officer killed in the line of duty this year.
Dubose, who is 6'1′ and 140 pounds, was also convicted of a separate armed robbery, as well as fraud, theft by taking, trespassing, fleeing/eluding police and aggravated assault. Rowe is serving a life sentence without parole in Valdosta State Prison. Local law enforcement officers engaged in the effort include the Baldwin, Greene, Henry and Jasper Counties Sheriffs' Offices and the Eatonton Police Department.
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