Police Shoot The Right Person For Once Posted by: Alecs Garcia June 29, 2015
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 wilderness area 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.
Sweat was spotted by a 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.
Authorities said Cook ordered Sweat to stop, but when he ran away into a recently mowed hayfield, the officer fired two shots at the fleeing fugitive, bringing him to the ground. It was not immediately known if Sweat was armed.
The escapee 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.
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 10 miles north of where companion escapee Matt was shot and killed Friday by a Border Patrol agent in the dense woods of the Adirondack Mountain region.
Clinton County Sheriff David Favro said Sweat covered considerable ground from where Matt was found 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.
Sweat and Matt 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 lock down 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.
Poster Comment:
Interesting for sure. They got the other fugitive.