Escaped Fugitive Richard Matt Shot And Killed: Police Still Looking For Accomplice [Video]
Prison fugitive Richard Matt, who escaped from New York prison Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora on June 6, was shot and killed by law enforcement officers Friday. He was shot in a heavily wooded area in northwest New York state. Police still don’t know where his accomplice is located.
New York escapee Richard Matt, right, is fatally shot. Officers closing in on David Sweat http://t.co/iahbi181br pic.twitter.com/nmaQW5PlC9
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 27, 2015
Police were tipped off about Matt’s location by a driver who thought he heard a shot at about 2 p.m. Friday, near Duane, New York, reports ABC News. After pulling off the road, the driver discovered a bullet hole shot in his camper and alerted police, said State Police Superintendent Joseph D’Amico, according to Fox News.
Law enforcement officials think Richard Matt was trying to hijack the camper, reports ABC News.
In the wooded area believed to be the scene of the shooting, officers smelled gun powder and deployed a tactical team to discover Richard’s location. State Police Superintendent D’Amico said the team encountered Matt in the wooded area and “told him to put up his hands and he was shot when he didn’t comply,” reports Fox News.
D’Amico informed the media that a 20-gauge shotgun was recovered from Richard Matt’s body, but Richard did not fire a shot towards law enforcement officials. One source close to the incident reported to Fox News that Matt was shot and killed by Customs Border Protection agents from the Department of Homeland Security.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, authorities are still trying to locate David Sweat, Richard Matt’s accomplice in the brazen prison escape where both men used power tools to saw through a steel cell wall and several steel steam pipes, knock a hole through a two-foot-thick brick wall, and squirm through pipes to escape, reports Fox News. Richard and David were serving life sentences.
The men accessed the power tools from a civilian worker at the prison, who has since been charged with helping the killers flee.
According to a source, officers have surrounded “a fairly small area” where they believe he might be hiding, reports Fox News. However, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo told the media at a press conference that “there is nothing to confirm where Sweat is at this time.”
Cuomo described Richard Matt and his accomplice as “dangerous, dangerous men,” when asked about the showdown in which Matt was shot. Sweat is considered to be armed and dangerous. There is no further information about the manhunt to capture Sweat.
[Image: New York State Police Department]
