Latest in N.Y. manhunt: 1 fugitive dead, 1 on the run

Doug Stanglin | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption NY prison break: 1 fugitive killed, the other on the run 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.

On the 21st day of an intense manhunt for two escaped murderers, officials said Friday that a federal border agent shot and killed Richard Matt in woods a few miles from the Canadian border.

Hours later, authorities were still pursuing his accomplice, David Sweat. They dismissed unconfirmed but widely reportedly accounts that Sweat was engaged in a gun battle with officers or that he had been shot or captured.

The 49-year-old Matt was slain about 3:45 p.m in a wooded area of Malone, N.Y., about 30 miles west of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, where he and Sweat escaped June 6.

Matt was armed with a .20-gauge shotgun and was shot by a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer after he refused to put his hands up, New York State Police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico said at a news briefing Friday night. He did not say how many times Matt was hit.

D'Amico said Matt did not fire his weapon, which authorities believe was stolen a week ago from an unattended hunting cabin around Black Cat Mountain.

"Officers verbally challenged him, told him to put up his hands," D'Amico said. "When he did not comply, he was shot."

Matt, originally from Tonawanda, north of Buffalo, 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 maximum-security prison. Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for killing a sheriff's deputy.

After Matt was killed, law enforcement teams pursued Sweat to an area near the southern tip of Lake Titus, in the Adirondack Mountains, about 30 miles west of the prison.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at an evening news conference that police were called after a camper trailer was hit by a bullet. Officers responding to a cabin smelled gunpowder, searched for Matt and then spotted him.

"They challenged him, engaged him, and he was shot," Cuomo said.

In its initial announcement, the State Police said only that a man believed to be Matt was shot after a "member of law enforcement" spotted him in Malone, about 10 miles from the border. The State Police announcement did not say whether Matt was armed or had fired on the officer.

The Plattsburgh Press-Republican reported that he was shot just off Route 30, near a cabin where police said DNA evidence showed he had been Thursday.

State police earlier Friday said new evidence found at a campsite and field had given them a "high degree of confidence" the two escaped killers were headed toward the Canadian border, traveling primarily at night.

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, about 30 miles from the maximum-security prison.

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."

Malone, with a population of about 15,000 people, is located in rugged, mountainous terrain in Franklin County.

While several locals felt somewhat comforted by the large presence of law enforcement in the area, many were looking wide-eyed at the sizable police and media presence that had suddenly engulfed their small community.

"It's pretty intense, things like this don't happen around here. To be so close to home, it's shocking, just very shocking," said April Martin, who witnessed the press conference along with her husband and young child. "When you hear the helicopters, it's a little hard to sleep at night."

Other residents echoed similar sentiments.

"It's very unnerving and scary for the whole town," said Stephanie Bannon, also of Malone. "Having three in my family who are in law enforcement, and a son who is out there right now actually, it's very scary and I just pray that everybody gets safe and nobody in law enforcement gets hurt. I'm hoping by the end of tonight they can catch the other one."

The Press-Republican newspaper, quoting unidentified sources, reported that DNA evidence taken at two sites, including a cabin in the Malone area, confirmed the recent presence of the fugitives.

Similar DNA evidence showed that the pair had been at a hunting camp last Saturday in Mountain View, about 10 miles southeast of Malone.

Guess said Friday afternoon that 1,100 officers — local, state and federal — are involved in the search in what he called "rugged, tenacious" forests and mountains.

As police concentrated their efforts in the new area, residents began receiving robocalls starting at 7 a.m. Friday alerting them to the increased presence of law enforcement officers.

One local resident, Clytis Primeau, a retired civilian communications specialist for the State Police, told the newspaper that stakeouts were set up every tenth of a mile along his road throughout the night.

Guess said the two men still appeared to have been traveling together and had taken "basic supplies" from a cabin and had "dropped some items" during their trek.

In Canada, Jeremy Laurin, spokesperson for the Office of the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, said Canadian security officials were working closely with their U.S. counterparts. "Canada will not be a safe haven for violent criminals and terrorists," he said.

Joyce Mitchell, 51, a prison worker, has been charged with aiding the escape, allegedly by hiding tools in meat.

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: Philip Tortora of the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press