Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
{vb:raw ozzmodz_postquote}:
Get the news
Log In or Subscribe to skip
237 3 [h=6]Share This Story![/h]Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about
[h=4]Police use floodlights, checkpoints in hunt for escaped killer[/h]Officers scour dense woods as search for David Sweat continues
{# #}
[h=4]Sent![/h]A link has been sent to your friend's email address.
[h=4]Posted![/h]A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.
[h=6]Join the Nation's Conversation[/h]To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs
[h=2]UP NEXT[/h][h=2]03[/h]
An officer shot and killed New York prison escapee Richard Matt on the 21st day of an intense manhunt, officials said. The other escapee, David Sweat, is still on the run. VPC
Department of Correction officers man a roadblock on Saturday in Malone. N.Y.(Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images)
MALONE, N.Y. — Police used floodlights overnight as they combed through dense woods in the search for escaped killer David Sweat. Other officers carrying rifles manned checkpoints and searched vehicles.
Franklin County Sheriff Kevin Mulverhill said late Saturday tips continued to pour in and he was optimistic David Sweat would be captured, perhaps within 48 hours.
"It's going to be one of those phone calls that turns this case around," he said.Joyce Mitchell, 51, a prison worker, has been charged with aiding the escape, allegedly by hiding tools in meat.
Heavy rain began overnight and was forecast to continue Saturday, making the search more difficult.
Police said Sweat is probably in bad shape and prone to making a mistake as the rains moved in and more than a thousand officers press their search for him in a rugged, 22-square-mile area of dense forests.
USA TODAY
In small town, a scene unlike anything as manhunt unfolds
The 35-year-old convicted murderer has been on the run since breaking out of a maximum prison three weeks ago with another killer, Richard Matt, 49. But Sweat is now on his own after a U.S. border agent, who flushed out Matt among the tangled vegetation, shot and killed him when he refused to throw down his shotgun, police said.
Franklin County Sheriff Kevin Mulverhill told reporters that Sweat is probably not in good condition after three weeks in the woods with minimal food and shelter.
"He's going to be tired and he's going to make a mistake," Mulverhill said.
Officers have concentrated their search on an area roughly five miles by five miles south of Malone, a town of 15,000 people about 10 miles from the Canadian border.
"If there was not credible evidence that he was in there than we would not have established this perimeter," the sheriff said.
He added that authorities are not worried about heavy rain that is expected to roll in during the night. "If Mr. Sweat is in there we'll find him," he said.
State troopers and police -- many working 16-hour days -- have erected roadblocks at key areas along rural roads. In some cases, residents have to be escorted into the area to return to their homes.
Matt was serving a 25-years-to-life sentence for the 1997 kidnapping, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of his boss when he and Sweat cut their way out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., on June 6. Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for killing a sheriff's deputy.
New York State Police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico said Matt was armed with a 20-gauge shotgun when he was killed Friday afternoon by a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
"Officers verbally challenged him, told him to put up his hands," D'Amico said. "When he did not comply, he was shot."
Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters there is no reason to believe Sweat wasn't with his now dead companion at the time of the shooting, but there was no hard evidence on his whereabouts.
"These are dangerous, dangerous men," Cuomo said. "We will do what we have to do to bring them to justice."
A corrections officer holds a gun at a roadblock in Malone, N.Y., June 27, 2015. The shooting death of escaped killer Richard Matt brought new energy to the three-week hunt for David Sweat, a second escaped murderer in the United States, as helicopters, search dogs and hundreds of law enforcement officers converged on a wooded area 30 miles from Clinton Correctional Facility.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Mike Groll, AP)
D'Amico also said there has not been a confirmed sighting of Sweat. He said Matt apparently stole his shotgun a week ago from an unattended hunting cabin around Black Cat Mountain.
Major Charles Guess, Troop B commander of the New York State Police, said evidence found Friday prompted officers to concentrate their search north and west of Malone.
Searchers closed in on the pair after receiving a 911 call from a woman who heard someone knock on her door early Friday, said U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, who was briefed by the Border Patrol and U.S. Marshals Service.
"She didn't answer the door, but she called the police," he said, according to the Associated Press. "They brought the dogs, and they got a scent. They followed that scent and put out a lot of troops around the cabin. They came upon him and found him and killed him."
Prison guard Gene Palmer, a 27-year-veteran who worked on the "honor" cellblock where the killers were housed, has been arrested on charges of promoting prison contraband, tampering with evidence and official misconduct in connection with the escape.
He told investigators he did favors for the prisoners — including giving them pliers and a screwdriver and allowing them into the rear catwalk — in exchange for paintings by Matt and information on illegal activity by other inmates.
Matt and Sweat escaped by cutting through a metal wall and some pipes and tunnels, then crawling from a manhole outside prison walls. It was the first escape there in 150 years.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
0) { %> 0) { %>
0) { %>
Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed