A New York State police officer was being hailed as a hero Sunday for
spotting and shooting escaped prisoner David Sweat, bringing to an end a
marathon 22-day manhunt for the cop killer and a fellow inmate.
Sweat, 35, had been on the run since he and Richard Matt broke out of
the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., on June 6. The
manhunt for the two killers involved 1,200 law enforcement personnel.
Sweat was taken into custody and is in stable condition at Albany
Medical Center, authorities said Sunday. Matt was gunned down by police
on Friday.
“This was an unprecedented coming together of law enforcement on
every level,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters Sunday
afternoon.
New York State Police Supt. Joseph D’Amico said Sgt. Jay Cook, a
21-year veteran of the force, first spotted Sweat jogging down a road in
the town of Constable Sunday afternoon, about 2 miles from the Canadian
border.
Cook, a local troop B member who was on patrol in the area alone,
approached Sweat and recognized the convict from his description, Cuomo
said.
Sweat then ran away on foot while Cook gave chase. Fearing Sweat
could make it to the tree line and disappear into the forest, Cook fired
two shots and hit Sweat in the torso, D’Amico said.
Police then took Sweat into custody.
“It was a very courageous act,” Cuomo said at the press conference, which was filled with cheers from the audience.
According to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., federal law
enforcement said Sweat was coughing up blood as he was taken to a
hospital. Sweat reportedly underwent surgery and was transferred to the
state's capital to receive further medical attention.
Albany Medical Center medical director Dr. Dennis McKenna told
reporters at a press conference that Sweat was in critical condition as
of late Sunday.
“The nightmare is finally over,” Cuomo said. “It took 22 days but we
can now confirm…Mr. Matt is deceased and Mr. Sweat is in custody is in
stable condition.”
State police had flooded the area Saturday night after developing evidence that Sweat was there.
"I can only assume he was going for the border," D'Amico said.
Sweat, who was unarmed, has not been formally interviewed by
investigators as of late Sunday, but any information he provides could
be critical to the investigation, Clinton County District Attorney
Andrew Wylie said.
An Amish dairy farmer said Sweat was captured on her property near a
tree line, just feet from an electrified fence where the cows graze.
Verba Bontrager, 38, who has run her family's farm in Constable for
the last nine years, said she was chatting with visitors inside when she
heard two gunshots. Her children and a family friend went outside, saw a
caravan of police cars and ambulances, and learned from a trooper that
Sweat had been captured.
She said her children had been home alone earlier, and even though
she knew police were looking for Sweat, she never thought to be worried.
Now, she said, they're a little shaken.
"I think it's kind of hard for them to go back to bed and sleep
because of everything that went on," Bontrager said. "We're all kind of
scared, I guess."
Sweat will be charged with escape, burglary and other charges, Wylie
said. The inmates are suspected of breaking into some of the region's
many cabins during their time on the lam. Wylie said prosecutors would
wait for Sweat to recover before charging him.
"I'm just glad it's over."
- Constable resident Trevor Buchanan
The search for the escaped killers was initially concentrated around
the prison and a rural community where search dogs had caught the scent
of both men. The search had since been expanded to neighboring counties,
and, while authorities said there was no evidence the men had gotten
out of the general area, they conceded they could have been almost
anywhere.
"It's a little unnerving, him being so close," said Constable resident Trevor Buchanan. "I'm just glad it's over."
D'Amico said the men may have used black pepper to mask their trail;
he said Sweat's DNA was recovered from pepper shakers found at one camp
where the fugitives may have spent time.
"We did have difficulty tracking so, you know, it was fairly effective in that respect," D'Amico said.
On Friday, Matt, 49, was killed by a border patrol agent near the town of Malone.
An autopsy showed Matt had been shot three times in the head, state
police said Sunday. Officials say Matt also had bug bites on his legs,
blisters and minor abrasions that would be expected for someone who had
been living in the woods.
Matt smelled of alcohol after a border patrol agent killed him
Friday, the Buffalo News reported. He was also sick, possibly after
consuming spoiled food or bad water, a law enforcement source told the
paper.
The indication Matt was ill came after searchers found soiled
underwear at a burglarized cabin Wednesday, the Buffalo News reported.
A DNA test showed the underwear belonged to Matt, the paper said.
The paper also reported that based on his clothes and appearance, it
looked like Matt had not bathed in a long time and had spent a great
deal of time on the lam in the outdoors.
Authorities said Matt was shot by a border patrol agent when he
failed to comply with orders to show his hands. A 20-gauge shotgun was
found on Matt, though he didn’t fire it at officers, authorities said.
"They verbally challenged him, told him to put up his hands. And at
that time, he was shot when he didn't comply," D'Amico said at a news
conference late Friday.
The breakthrough came Friday shortly before 2 p.m., when a person
towing a camper head a loud sound and thought a tire had blown out.
Finding the tire intact, the driver drove another eight miles before
discovering a bullet hole.
Authorities converged on the location where the sound was heard and
discovered the smell of gunfire inside a cabin. D’Amico said there was
also evidence someone had fled out the back door.
A noise -- perhaps a cough -- ultimately did Matt in. A border patrol
team discovered Matt, who was shot after failing to heed a command to
raise his hands.
"As we were doing the ground search in the area, there was movement
detected by officers on the ground, what they believed to be coughs. So
they knew that they were dealing with humans as opposed to wildlife," he
said.
"We have a lot of people in the area. We have canines and we have a
decent perimeter set up and we're searching for Sweat at this time," he
said.
Mitch Johnson said one of his best friends checked on his hunting
cabin in Malone Friday afternoon and called police after noticing the
scent of grape flavored gin as soon as he stepped into his cabin and
spotting the bottle that had gone untouched for years resting on a
kitchen table.
Johnson said his friend, correction officer Bob Willett, told him he
summoned police about an hour before Matt was fatally shot and then
heard a flurry of gun blasts.
Sweat was serving a sentence of life without parole in the killing of
a sheriff's deputy in Broome County in 2002. Matt was serving 25 years
to life for the killing and dismembering of his former boss.
Matt and Sweat used power tools to saw through a steel cell wall and
several steel steam pipes, bashed a hole through a 2-foot-thick brick
wall, squirmed through pipes and emerged from a manhole outside the
Clinton Correctional Facility.
A civilian worker at the prison, Joyce Mitchell, has been charged
with helping the killers flee by giving them hacksaw blades, chisels and
other tools. She has pleaded not guilty.
On June 24, authorities charged Clinton correction officer Gene
Palmer with promoting prison contraband, tampering with physical
evidence and official misconduct. Officials said he gave the two
prisoners the frozen hamburger meat Joyce Mitchell had used to hide the
tools she smuggled to Sweat and Matt. Palmer's attorney said he had no
knowledge that the meat contained hacksaw blades, a bit and a
screwdriver.
