Cops converge on woods in hunt for prisoner on the run
MALONE, N.Y. -- The shooting death of one escaped killer brought new energy to the three-week hunt for his jailbreak partner as helicopters, search dogs and hundreds of law enforcement officers converged on a wooded area 30 miles from the upstate New York prison that once held them.
"Our preference would always be to capture them alive," New York State Police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico told a news conference as he announced late Friday the killing hours earlier of Richard Matt, one of the two killers who escaped from a maximum-security prison.
Law enforcement sources told CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton that moments after Matt was fatally shot, investigators assumed they were right on top of the second inmate, Richard Sweat, although they had nothing to confirm his whereabouts. Sweat has not been spotted since he escaped.
CBS News correspondent Anna Werner reports from Malone that sources said overnight authorities made a tight perimeter of officers stationed every 25 yards. The New York State Police said Saturday's search effort focused on a 22 square mile perimeter.
D'Amico credited a tip from the public, one of over 2,300 received so far, for crucial information leading to the deadly confrontation in Malone.
Evidence was found a week ago indicating Sweat was with Matt in a cabin that was burglarized about 3 miles from any paved roadway, the superintendent said.
Officers continued to focus Saturday on rugged terrain west of Clinton Correctional Facility as they looked for Sweat. Police manned roadblocks in the neighboring towns of Malone and Duane as a helicopter buzzed over the woods.
Clinton County Sheriff David Favro said Saturday there is no evidence the two split up.
"Now it's a one-man show and it makes it more difficult for him," said Favro, whose officers are involved in the search. "And I'm sure fatigue is setting in for him as well, knowing the guy he was with has already been shot."
D'Amico said Matt was shot by a border patrol agent when he failed to comply with commands in the woods near a cabin where a shot had been fired earlier in the day at a camping trailer. A 20-gauge shotgun was found on him, though he did not fire it at officers, he added.
"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.
Matt's body was being sent south to Albany for an autopsy, Favro said.
An intense search of the area led to a discovery Friday morning of a camp where somebody apparently had laid down, leaving behind candy wrappers and other items, D'Amico said.
The breakthrough Friday came shortly before 2 p.m., when a person towing a camper heard a loud sound and thought a tire had blown. Finding the tires intact, the driver went another eight miles before looking at the trailer and finding a bullet hole.
Authorities converged on the location where the sound was heard and discovered the smell of gunfire inside a cabin, where a weapon had been fired. D'Amico said there also was evidence someone recently had fled out the back door.
"As we were doing the ground search in the area, there was movement detected by officers on the ground, what they believed to be coughs. So they knew that they were dealing with humans as opposed to wildlife," he said.
Authorities found two sets of foot tracks near the cabin, leading authorities to suspect the men were still together, the law enforcement sources told Milton.
Authorities believe that Sweat may have a jump of 30 minutes to an hour from the time the shots were fired at the camper to when Matt was shot, the sources told Milton. They are trying to use that figure to pinpoint his location.
After Matt was killed, a 20-gauge shotgun that was believed to be missing from the cabin he broke into last weekend was recovered from his body, D'Amico said.
"Based on that, we continued to search. We have a lot of people in the area. We have canines and we have a decent perimeter set up and we're searching for Sweat at this time," he said.
D'Amico said he had no information that Sweat was not with or near Matt so a heavy search of the area would go on.
The pair escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility together early June 6. Gov. Andrew Cuomo called them "dangerous, dangerous men."
Police blocked off roads officers hunted for Sweat in an area around Titusville Mountain State Forest in Malone and spanning 22 square miles.
Mitch Johnson said one of his best friends checked on his hunting cabin in Malone Friday afternoon and called police after noticing the scent of grape flavored gin as soon as he stepped into his cabin and spotting the bottle that had gone untouched for years resting on a kitchen table.
Johnson said his friend, correction officer Bob Willett, told him he summoned police about an hour before Matt was fatally shot and then heard a flurry of gun blasts.
Matt and Sweat used power tools to saw through a steel cell wall and several steel steam pipes, bashed a hole through a 2-foot-thick brick wall, squirmed through pipes and emerged from a manhole outside the prison.
Sweat, 35, was serving a sentence of life without parole in the killing of a sheriff's deputy in Broome County in 2002. Matt, 49, was serving 25 years to life for the killing and dismembering of his former boss. They were added to the U.S. Marshals Service's 15 Most Wanted fugitives list two weeks after getting away.
A pair of prison workers has been charged in connection with the inmates' escape.
Prosecutors said Joyce Mitchell, a prison tailoring shop instructor who got close to the men while working with them, had agreed to be their getaway driver but backed out because she felt guilty for participating. Authorities also said Mitchell had discussed killing her husband, Lyle Mitchell, as part of the plot.
Joyce Mitchell pleaded not guilty June 15 to charges including felony promoting prison contraband, which authorities said included hacksaw blades and chisels.
Authorities said the men had filled their beds in their adjacent cells with clothes to make it appear they were sleeping when guards made overnight rounds. On a cut steam pipe, the prisoners left a taunting note containing a crude caricature of an Asian face and the words "Have a nice day."
On June 24, authorities charged Clinton correction officer Gene Palmer with promoting prison contraband, tampering with physical evidence and official misconduct. Officials said he gave the two prisoners frozen hamburger meat Joyce Mitchell had used to hide the tools she smuggled to Sweat and Matt. Palmer's attorney said he had no knowledge that the meat contained hacksaw blades, a bit and a screwdriver.