A prison guard on horseback who was monitoring inmates as they worked in a vegetable field apparently allowed one of the inmates to get too close to him, triggering an escape attempt that resulted in another guard’s death, officials said.

The two inmates — convicted murderer John Ray Falk, 40, and Jerry Duane Martin, 37, convicted of attempted capital murder — escaped Monday from their work detail in a garden outside of the Wynne Unit prison just north of Huntsville.

As they fled in a stolen truck parked nearby, the men struck a horse ridden by correctional officer Susan Canfield, 59, who fell to the ground and died. Both escapees were recaptured within four hours.

Canfield's funeral will be Saturday in the Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum at Sam Houston State University. The family will greet visitors Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in front of the Sam Houston Memorial Funeral Home.

The men were among 76 inmates being guarded by seven correctional officers on horseback, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons. A male guard allowed one of the escapees to approach because the inmate asked the guard to hold his watch. When the officer tried to take the watch, the inmate pulled him to the ground.

Lyons said Tuesday that mounted guards are required to stay 30 feet away from inmates.

“Our policy is that officers working with field squads should stay a minimum of 30 feet from the offenders while the inmates are on foot, working,” Lyons said.

Keith Price, assistant professor of criminal justice and sociology at West Texas A&M University and a former Texas prison warden, said inmates should never be allowed to approach a guard in the field. The guards are trained to form a perimeter around the workers and not to approach the prisoners while armed, he said.

Lyons said a review by the department’s independent investigator’s office and the Texas Rangers will determine what occurred and how it could have been prevented.

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Susan Canfield

“It’s these types of details that will be a part of the focus of the serious incident review,” Lyons said. “At that point, we will be able to examine what was done correctly and where any breakdowns may have occurred.”

During the escape, the two inmates exchanged gunfire with officers, stole a Huntsville city truck from a nearby parking area and ran over Canfield as she tried to stop them, Lyons said.

The inmates dumped the pickup about a mile away, and then confronted a woman in a bank drive-through in Huntsville and took her car. By then, the Huntsville police were in pursuit and shot out a tire in that car.

When the inmates jumped out of the woman’s vehicle, Falk was caught, Lyons said.

Martin scampered into some woods and was captured a couple of hours later in a wooded area about a mile or two south of where the officer was killed.

Canfield, of New Waverly, had been a corrections officer for seven years, Lyons said.

Her horse was euthanized after a bullet wound was discovered.