David Sweat, one of two New York state inmates who escaped from prison three weeks ago, was shot by police near the Canadian border and rushed to a local hospital on Sunday, two days after his accomplice was killed, authorities said.
His capture was the dramatic climax of a massive manhunt for Sweat and his fellow inmate Richard Matt, who were discovered missing from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, on June 6. Some 1,300 members of law enforcement took part in the search through the forests and bogs of northern New York.
Sweat, 35, was shot and taken into custody in the town of Constable, New York, 23 miles (37 km) north of Duane, where his accomplice was shot and killed on Friday, New York State Police said in a statement. Constable is just 5 miles (8 km) south of New York's border with the Canadian province of Quebec.
Sergeant Jay Cook of the New York State Police spotted "a suspicious man walking down a roadway" at about 3:20 p.m. local time. He then shot and injured the man, who turned out to be Sweat, the statement said. Sweat was taken into custody alive, and then taken to a local hospital for treatment.
Details on his condition were not immediately clear. The Buffalo News reported that Sweat was bleeding badly from "life-threatening" wounds, while Plattsburgh's Press-Republican said he was in a stable condition.
CNN showed a photograph of Sweat after he was captured, seated on the ground in a dark jacket and muddy camouflage clothing. He also appeared to have dried blood on his face.
Security was tight outside the Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone, where Sweat was transported. An Albany Times Union reporter said on Twitter the prisoner would later be airlifted to a hospital in the state capital of Albany.
"I think a lot of people are going to rest easier tonight," said Jessica Randall, 38, of Malone, who was shopping with her husband when she saw a convoy of police vehicles speed by.
Capturing the suspect alive would enable New York state prison authorities to learn more about how the pair managed to break out and use that information to tighten security.
In their audacious break-out, the pair cut through cell walls, climbed along a catwalk, shimmied through a steam pipe and emerged from a manhole outside prison walls, authorities said.
Matt, 49, was shot and killed on Friday near Malone, about 27 miles (43 km) northwest of the maximum-security prison, by a member of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection tactical unit.
Autopsy results released earlier on Sunday showed he was shot three times in the head and died of severe skull fractures and brain injuries.
Matt also had bug bites, blisters and minor abrasions "consistent with living in the woods for three weeks," the New York State Police said in a statement.
The manhunt for the pair had scoured a remote, heavily wooded area where law enforcement agents worked around the clock in scorching weather and driving rain using infrared devices and listening posts.
The New York Daily News published on Sunday what it said was an exclusive photograph of the pair walking in sunlit woods, taken by a trail camera, while they were on the run on Wednesday. In the picture, one of them appears to be holding a shotgun or rifle.
The Buffalo News reported earlier on Sunday that Sweat's DNA had been found on a pepper shaker, about a mile from where Matt was shot, citing a law enforcement source. It said pepper is often used by people on the run to try to throw off police dogs.
Sweat had been serving a life sentence without parole in 2003 for killing a New York sheriff's deputy.
Matt was convicted in the 1997 torture, murder and dismemberment of his boss in Tonawanda, New York. After he apparently fired a shot at a passing motorist on Friday, officers spotted and confronted him outside a cabin.
He was shot and killed after he refused to comply with orders to put down a shotgun he was holding, police said.
The Buffalo News has reported that Matt, who turned 49 the day before, may have been intoxicated, citing the owner of a burglarized cabin who said he had found empty liquor bottles.
Police said toxicology results were pending.
Two prison workers have been charged with aiding in the escape. Gene Palmer, a 57-year-old corrections officer, is accused of bringing hacksaw blades and a screwdriver bit to the inmates, hidden in frozen hamburger meat supplied by Joyce Mitchell, 51, a training supervisor in the prison tailor shop.
Copyright Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.
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