A massive manhunt in Tennessee ended late Wednesday with the capture of an escaped convict and his alleged cop-killing wife.
After pleading guilty to additional charges Monday, George Hyatte was being transported from Roane County Courthouse when his wife, Jennifer Hyatte, pulled up in an SUV. She allegedly shot and killed 56-year-old Corrections Officer Wayne Morgan.
While the pair was eventually captured, the Bonnie and Clyde-style shoot-out left a painful trail behind them.
The focus now turns to the family of the martyred man as well as George Hyatte’s brother. Just who was Wayne Morgan and how does the fugitive's brother feel about his actions?
"Live and Direct" host Rita Cosby arranged a meeting between George Hyatte’s brother and sister-in-law and the slain officer’s children.
RITA COSBY, 'LIVE AND DIRECT' HOST: How are both of you holding up?
DENNIS MORGAN, SON OF KILLED OFFICER: We’re good, considering.
COSBY: How did you find out the news?
CARLA KEATON, DAUGHTER OF KILLED OFFICER: My mother had called and said that the chaplain at the prison had called her and actually told her that Dad had been shot. But we didn’t know if it was critical, and we just made the relay phone calls and got word to everyone.
COSBY: So how did you find out, Dennis?
MORGAN: I was at work, and a co-worker told me that a shooting had happened in Kingston. I just somehow knew without any other details that it was my dad involved, so I started trying to make calls, and the calls just turned into finding out that he had been shot. So I just made my way to the hospital, and that’s where they told me that he had passed away.
COSBY: And you were there?
MORGAN: Yes.
COSBY: Tell us about your dad.
KEATON: There’s nothing that he wouldn’t do for anybody. He was really just an avid hunter, church goer.
MORGAN: A good Christian guy.
COSBY: And even loved the inmates, you know? He even knew George Hyatte.
KEATON: Yes.
COSBY: I mean he had transported him a couple times, right?
KEATON: Yes.
MORGAN: Yes, he founded their respect. And he was in a position at the prison, in the correctional facility, to make a difference in someone’s lives. So I believe that’s what he was meant do.
KEATON: That was his purpose.
COSBY: He had a higher calling and wanted to do something good.
KEATON: He had actually witnessed to George...
COSBY: He did?
KEATON: ... several times.
COSBY: He did?
KEATON: Yes, according to his partner.
MORGAN: Yes, that was with him that day.
COSBY: And actually preached the gospel and spoke about things?
KEATON: Yes. Yes.
MORGAN: Right.
COSBY: How would your dad feel now?
KEATON: He would want us just to forgive and just move on and just pray that he could change his life.
MORGAN: And that his death will make a difference somehow.
COSBY: Michael Hyatte, I know this has been awfully tough for you. And I appreciate your wife, Heather. It’s been tough for all of both. What would you like to say to this beautiful family?
MICHAEL HYATTE, SUSPECT’S BROTHER: I’d like to say we’re very sorry. My whole family offers our condolences.
HYATTE: If there were anything that we could do, you know, for the family we will.
MORGAN: I appreciate that.
MORGAN: And we have no anger or remorse against you guys. We just hope that you think the same way that we do, that the right thing should be done.
HYATTE: Yes, we do. You know, we want him to pay for what he done.
KEATON: Let’s just hope that he doesn’t go to sleep at night without knowing that my dad had talked to him and that all the conversations they’ve had, maybe that he would change his life.
HYATTE: I talked to [my other brother] from Baghdad today, and you know, he told me to really tell you all that the Lord’s going to work this out. You know, George, if he just listened to his heart and does what the Lord tell him, that going to do the right thing.
But me and my family, we can’t imagine what you’re going through right now. I have a mother ill with cancer. And I mean, I lost my father three years ago, so I mean, I know the hurt and the pain that that causes. And please, we’re very sorry.
MORGAN: We appreciate that.
HYATTE: We’re very sorry.
COSBY: Mike, what do you think caused your brother to do this?
HYATTE: He just wasn’t sure what to do. He got confused. He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life in prison.
COSBY: Did you see this coming? Or did your family see this coming in any way?
HYATTE: No, we didn’t. We didn’t see it coming at all because, I mean, he’s done a lot of bad things in his life, but he never went so far as to take another human life. We don’t condone what he done at all. We never will.
COSBY: Are you worried how this is going to end?
HYATTE: I’m worried because two wrongs don’t make a right. Killing him is not going to bring your father back. I’m sorry, but it’s not. Killing him is not going to bring him back. We have a real chance to see what they had in store for him today, and I believe that a lot of people that don’t know him, what they’re going to do, they’re going to try to hurt him.
But that’s my little brother [and] his mama, that’s her baby boy. If I could have stood there and took that bullet for your father, I promise you, I would have done that. Without a doubt.
COSBY: I understand you’re going to have some beautiful funeral arrangements. And your dad was so well loved. It’s going to be at a school auditorium?
KEATON: Yes.
COSBY: I don’t know if an auditorium’s going to be big enough for the people that loved your dad. How does that make you feel? Your dad was a real hero.
KEATON: He was a hero to us.
MORGAN: Makes me proud.
KEATON: It’s makes us proud to know that he was also a hero to the community.
MORGAN: And that he was definitely loved by his co-workers and friends and family.
Watch 'Rita Cosby Live & Direct' each night at 9 p.m. ET on MSNBC.