1 Prison Escapee Killed By Police; Manhunt For 2nd Continues
By
Zach Hirsch |
NPR
Saturday, June 27, 2015
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Authorities say they have shot and killed escaped convict Richard Matt three weeks after he and another inmate escaped from a prison in northern New York State. The other escapee, David Sweat, is still at large.
Transcript
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
One of the two inmates who escaped from a maximum security prison in upstate New York has been shot and killed. Convicted murderer, Richard Matt, is dead after three weeks on the run. As North Country Public Radio's Zach Hirsch reports, Richard Matt was killed near the Canadian border.
ZACH HIRSCH, BYLINE: Investigators had been following a string of clues that took them from the woods just outside the prison to a rural highway, about 30 miles away. According to Joseph D'Amico, superintendent of the New York State Police, that's where someone driving an RV heard a loud sound. They thought they had a flat tire.
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D'AMICO: They drove on about eight miles, and when they pulled into a campsite, they examined the trailer that they were towing and realized that there was a bullet hole through the back of the camper.
HIRSCH: Search teams swarmed the area, and they eventually came upon a cabin where D'Amico said they could smell gunpowder. They also believed someone had just run out the back, into the woods.
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D'AMICO: There was movement detected by officers on the ground - what they believed to be coughs - so they knew they were dealing with humans as opposed to wildlife.
HIRSCH: And that's when a tactical team finally tracked down Richard Matt.
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D'AMICO: Met up with Matt in the woods, challenged him, and he was shot dead by border patrol at that time. We recovered a 20-gauge shotgun from Matt's body at the location.
HIRSCH: Matt did not fire at the officers. D'Amico said he was shot when he was told to put his hands up and didn't. Meanwhile, the other fugitive, David Sweat, is still out there. New York state officials said they have material evidence to show that Matt and Sweat were together in recent days.
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D'AMICO: We have no actual sighting of Sweat by law enforcement, but we have no indication that Sweat wasn't accompanying Matt at the time they were shot and killed. So, we're going to maintain the perimeter that we have, continue to do a good ground search just as we have in the last couple of days.
HIRSCH: So the manhunt continues. It's now day 22. Some officials have said the cost of the search could be as high as a million dollars a day. Here's Governor Andrew Cuomo.
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GOV ANDREW CUOMO: We haven't tallied up the cost. There's no doubt that it's expensive. But there's also no doubt, in my opinion, but that it is worth it. This was the first escape from this prison in the prison's history and this is a prison that goes back about 100 years. And these are truly armed and dangerous people and we will do what we have to do to bring them to justice.
HIRSCH: Across town, on the edge of the search perimeter, Malone resident Matt McGuire said he just wants everything to go back to normal.
MATT MCGUIRE: Hopefully, you know, they catch the other convict and then everyone can go back to their families. I mean, we'll be happy just to have our quiet little community back.
HIRSCH: He said if Sweat isn't caught soon, he and his wife will stay with family elsewhere, away from all the guns and roadblocks. For NPR News, I'm Zach Hirsch in northern New York. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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