One of two convicted murderers who escaped from a maximum security prison in upstate New York was shot and killed by police on Friday.
Richard Matt – the 49-year-old killer who broke out from Clinton Correctional Facility nearly three weeks ago with 35-year-old David Sweat – was killed by a Border Patrol agent.
He was tracked down after a person towing a camper reported that there was a bullet hole through the back of it, Governor Andrew Cuomo and state police said.
Sweat was still being sought. Police brought floodlights into a heavily wooded area in Malone where they believed he was hiding and where Matt was killed.
The shooting of the camper led officers to a cabin on Friday afternoon in Malone, where they discovered the smell of gunpowder, said Joseph D’Amico, superintendent of New York State Police. There were indications someone had recently been there and fled out the back door, he said.
While searching the property, officers heard coughs and detected movement, and tactical teams came upon Matt in the woods. “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. A 20-gauge shotgun was found on Matt, who didn’t fire the weapon, D’Amico said.
It wasn’t clear if Matt and Sweat were together at the time of the shooting, authorities said.
Malone is about 35 miles from the town of Dannemora, where the prison is located. As the search for Sweat continued, dozens of law enforcement vehicles converged on an area south of the town, 27 miles north-west of the prison.
Matt was serving 25 years to life for the killing and dismembering of his former boss. Sweat was serving a sentence of life without parole in the killing of a sheriff’s deputy in Broome County in 2002.
A manhunt involving hundreds of state and federal law enforcement investigators has pursued Matt and Sweat since their elaborate escape from prison, pursuing more than 2,000 leads, mostly in vain. The two men used power tools to cut their way out of their cell and through heating pipes before emerging into a Dannemora street through a manhole cover.
Last week, searchers discovered DNA matching one of the convicts in a burglarized cabin, the first “confirmed lead” in the chase. Most of the search efforts have concentrated in the vicinity of the prison although last weekend searchers rushed to an area on the New York Pennsylvania border, after what was reported as a possible sighting of the men.
Two people have been arrested and charged for actions related to the escape: civilian Joyce Mitchell and prison worker Gene Palmer.
Palmer has been suspended without pay and is due to be arraigned in court on Monday, accused of bringing hacksaw blades and a screwdriver bit to Matt and Sweat. The blades and bit are alleged to have been hidden in frozen hamburger meat supplied by Mitchell, who faces criminal charges.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
