23-day hunt for escaped killers ends as surviving convict shot, captured
Published 3:14 pm Sunday, June 28, 2015
- State Police Sgt. Jay Cook shot, wounded and captured David Sweat, the surviving escaped killer.
MALONE, N.Y. — David Sweat, the surviving escaped killer from New York’s top-security prison, was shot and wounded by a state trooper Sunday afternoon in a hayfield two miles from the Canadian border.
Authorities said Sweat, 35, was alive and taken to Alice Hyde Medical Center in the town of Malone for emergency treatment. He was reported in stable condition from two gunshots to his torso.
“The nightmare is finally over,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo at a news conference.
Sweat was spotted by State Police Sgt. Jay Cook walking down a rural road in the town of Constable around 3:20 p.m., two days after his prison breakout partner, Richard Matt, 49, was shot and killed.
Cook was patrolling the perimeter of the search zone alone and noticed a man jogging along the road, State Police Superintendent Joseph D’Amico said. Cook had a brief exchange with the man from his patrol car about what he was doing in the area.
When Cook emerged from his car, he recognized the man as Sweat, who quickly started running across the hayfield toward the woods at the edge of the field, with Cook in pursuit, said D’Amico.
The trooper fired two shots from his service revolver into the fugitive’s torso, stopping him before he could disappear into the woods, added D’Amico.
The escapee, who was not armed, was wearing camouflage hunting clothes, including a hooded parka. Officials said the gear was likely stolen from cabins Sweat and Matt broke into while on the run.
Search conditions throughout the day were hampered by heavy rain. Authorities said they were pleasantly surprised that Sweat left the cover of the dense woods to walk in the open.
Tom MacDonald, who owns the hayfield where Sweat was captured, said he was watching television when suddenly “a whole bunch of cop cars went through.” He said Sweat probably followed railroad tracks to his farm.
“Glad they got him,” said MacDonald.
Sweat was located about 18 miles north of where companion escapee Matt was shot and killed Friday by a Border Patrol agent in the Adirondack Mountain region.
Clinton County Sheriff David Favro said Sweat covered considerable ground from Matt’s location in light of the intensive dragnet that authorities set up in the area.
“Once Matt got shot,” said Favro, “it looks like the adrenaline got going, and he moved fast.”
The sheriff said as Sweat recovers, investigators will question him about every aspect of the escape, and who assisted the convicted killers in breaking out of the prison.
“I will be curious to see what he’s going to say,” said Favro.
The shooting death of one escapee and the wounding of the other put a violent exclamation mark on the 23-day search for them – a massive manhunt that involved more than 1,200 law enforcement officials and cost an estimated $1 million per day. D’Amico, the state police superintendent, said Matt and Sweat used pepper from table shakers to throw the bloodhounds off the fugitives’ scent.
The convicts executed an intricately planned escape June 6 from the Clinton Correctional Facility 40 miles south of where they were found. Authorities said they had inside help as the first prisoners to break out of the maximum security section since it was built 150 years ago.
The prison’s female tailor shop supervisor and a prison guard, both of whom authorities said befriended Sweat and Matt, have been arrested in connection with the break out.
Sweat was serving a life term without parole for the 2003 murder of a deputy sheriff. Matt was serving 25 years to life for the kidnapping, torture and dismemberment of his former boss from North Tonawanda, N.Y.
Residents of the Adirondack Mountain region expressed relief that both escaped killers were now accounted for. They had been in lockdown status throughout most of the ordeal.
“Oh, my God, I am so excited. I am so happy,” said Audra Buchanan of Constable. “I can finally let my little girl, Lesley, go out and play.”
Trevor Buchanan of Constable said the hunt for Sweat was “a little unnerving, him being so close. I’m just glad it is over.”
Mike and Terry McCaffrey of Malone saw a post about Sweat’s capture on Facebook, and drove to the hospital where he was taken to watch the ambulance arrive.
They said summer fun with their children had been put on hold with the convicts on the lam in the region.
“It kind of put our town on the map,” said Mrs. McCaffrey.
Details for this story were provided by the Plattsburgh, N.Y., Press-Republican.