Second NY Escapee Gunned Down, Captured
MALONE, N.Y., June 28 (UPI) — Authorities on Sunday wounded and captured David Sweat — the second prison escapee who’s been on the run since June 6 — bringing an end to the massive three-week manhunt that, at times, spanned from New York to the U.S.-Canada border.
Police closed in on Sweat this weekend after discovering traces of his DNA near the site where his accomplice, Richard Matt, was shot dead on Thursday. With the help of a police helicopter and bloodhounds, officers finally spotted Sweat in Constable, N.Y., and a state trooper reportedly wounded him with gunfire.
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A short time later, Sweat, 35, was taken into custody, officials confirmed to various news media. His capture brings to an end a laborious and expensive regional manhunt that lasted for exactly three weeks in the Northeast and involved state and federal law enforcement agencies.
Matt and Sweat — both convicted killers — used an elaborate escape plan to flee from the Clinton County Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., on June 6. Thursday, after almost three weeks of searching and next to no clues as to his whereabouts, police finally encountered and shot Matt in a wooded area along New York Highway 30 near the town of Malone — 10 miles south of the Canadian border.
The coroner’s autopsy cites skull fractures and brain damage resulting from the gunfire as the causes of death. The autopsy also revealed numerous bug bites, blisters and bruises “consistent with living in the woods for three weeks,” the New York State Police said.
Authorities previously said they suspected the two escapees could be traveling together. Once Matt was located and killed, they said, the search focused on the wooded area around Malone and New York highways 30 and 41.
Sweat’s exact condition was not immediately revealed by police, aside from the disclosure that he had been wounded by gunfire.
