Eight inmates who witnessed two Georgia prison guards killed on bus two years ago have filed federal lawsuits against the Georgia Department of Corrections claiming the deaths could have been prevented.

Convicted armed robbers Donnie Russell Rowe and Ricky Dubose were riding on a prison bus in June 2017 when they broke free and fatally shot two guards on a prison transport bus before carjacking their way to freedom. The felons are awaiting trial in Georgia and face the death penalty if convicted of killing correction officers Christopher Monica, 42, and Curtis Billue, 58.

In eight individual suits, the plaintiffs claim they suffered physical and mental harm during the incident and that they were later punished with solitary confinement.

Each lawsuit seeks a jury trial and at least $250,000 for each man and was filed by Kennesaw attorney Ted Salter on behalf of the following plaintiffs: Geiger James Clifford, Timothy Elijah Faison, Timothy Brian Dotson, J.D. Powell Jr., Samuel Moss, Dennis Roberson, Timothy Arnell Ghiden Jr. and Christopher Trammell.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in a recorded interview played during a hearing last June, Dubose told FBI and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents he seized the opportunity when he noticed the gate separating officers and inmates was unlocked, that guards had failed to double lock prisoners’ handcuffs and that one of the officers was asleep.

The men escaped, authorities said, carjacked a Honda and held a couple hostage for several hours before stealing another vehicle. Authorities apprehended them in Murfreesboro after a three-day manhunt.

After the guards were killed, the suit states, the state of Georgia conducted an investigation and found rules for transporting prisoners had not been followed.

At the time of the killings, Rowe had been sentenced to life without parole for an armed robbery in Macon. Dubose was serving 20 years for an armed robbery in Elbert County.