Police on edge as jailbreak man critical
SECURITY AGENCIES HOPE TO MAKE WOUNDED SWEAT TO SHARE TALE OF THE GREAT ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK PRISON
Some of the same state troopers who spent three weeks hunting down two escaped killers found themselves scrambling to get the lone survivor to a hospital, hoping to make him well enough to share the tale of how the pair managed to escape and stay on the run for so long.
David Sweat, 35, was shot and captured on Sunday afternoon when a single state police sergeant spotted a suspicious man walking on a rural road in Constable, near the Canadian border. He was in critical condition at an Albany hospital on Sunday night.
His capture came two days after his fellow escapee, Richard Matt, was killed in a confrontation with law enforcement while holding a shotgun. Sweat was unarmed when he was shot twice by Sgt. Jay Cook as the fugitive ran for a tree line.
The men had been on the loose since June 6, when they cut their way out of a maximum-security prison about 50 kilometres away using power tools. Two prison workers have been charged with helping them.
Clinton correction officer Gene Palmer, charged with promoting prison contraband, tampering with physical evidence and official misconduct, was due in court yesterday. His attorney said he would plead not guilty.
Officials said Palmer gave the two prisoners frozen hamburger meat that a prison tailoring shop instructor 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.
Property searches
Prosecutors said the tailor shop worker, Joyce Mitchell, got close to the men while working with them and had agreed to be their getaway driver but backed out because she felt guilty for participating in the escape. Authorities also said Mitchell had discussed killing her husband as part of the plot. Mitchell pleaded not guilty on June 15 to charges including felony promoting prison contraband.
Sweat’s capture ended an ordeal that sent 1,300 law enforcement officers into the thickly forested northern reaches of New York and forced residents to tolerate nerveracking armed checkpoints and property searches.
“The nightmare
is
finally over,” governor Andrew Cuomo declared at a news conference.
Cook, a 21-year veteran, was alone and on routine patrol when he stumbled upon Sweat in Constable, about 50 km northwest of the prison. He gave chase when Sweat fled and decided to fire fearing he would lose Sweat in the trees, state police said.
“I can only assume he was going for the border,” Superintendent Joseph D’Amico said.
D’Amico said the men may A convicted murderer has been captured in the US state of North Carolina days after escaping from jail, allegedly with the help of a female prison worker, an official said yesterday.
The case mirrors another US prison breakout making international headlines, in which police conducted a weeks-long manhunt for two escaped killers in the state of New York.
Kristopher McNeil, the 29-year-old North Carolina escapee, was arrested just before 11pm on Sunday (0300 GMT yesterday) walking along a highway near the southern state’s Forsyth-Davidson county line, Department of Public Safety communications director Pamela Walker said. have used black pepper to throw off their scent from the dogs that were tracking them.
Cuomo said many questions remained unanswered in the case, including whether the inmates had other accomplices.
Sweat had not been formally interviewed by investigators as of late Sunday, but any information he provides could be critical to the investigation, Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said.