MALONE, N.Y. – One of two murderers, on the lam for nearly three weeks from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, has been shot dead in a confrontation with police.
Matt, 48, was killed Friday afternoon after an attempted carjacking in the area of State Route 30, south of Malone, N.Y.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York State Police Supt. Joseph D’Amico updated reporters during a news conference Friday night.
Gov. Cuomo said officers received a complaint of a shooting in the Town of Duane, N.Y., about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of the Village of Malone.
Cuomo detailed how a motorist pulling a trailer thought he had got a flat after hearing a bang. After realizing later that he had been shot at, he called police.
Supt. D’Amico said officers traced the shooting back to a cabin off State Route 41 in the Town of Duane, N.Y., where they smelled gun powder and then called in the U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit. The elite border team was brought in by helicopter.
D’Amico said those officers “engaged” Matt in the woods and he was told to put his hands up. He did not comply and was shot dead, said the New York State police officer.
Matt did not return fire. He was armed with a 20 gauge shotgun.
As for David Sweat, Gov. Cuomo said there is no reason not to believe that Sweat, still at large, wasn’t with David Matt.
However, there is no conclusive evidence that he was with Matt, Friday.
Both Supt. D’Amico and Gov. Cuomo urged area residents to be vigilant and to call law enforcement if they see Sweat. “These are dangerous, dangerous men,” said Cuomo.
Matt, along with David Sweat, 34, have been on the run since June 6, 2015 after a brazen and elaborate escape from the prison about an hour southeast of Cornwall, Ont.
The escape from the maximum security prison included cutting through walls using power tools and then cutting through steel pipes to make their way out through a manhole cover.
Sweat is still on the run and reports suggest there is an “active pursuit” around Lake Titus, southwest of the Titus Mountain Family Ski Center.
During the news conference, Supt. D’Amico said there was “no factual evidence they were heading to Canada” but they were trying to head north.
Matt was serving 25 years to life for kidnapping, murdering and dismembering his former boss in 1997.
Sweat was serving a life sentence for the murder of a sheriff’s deputy in 2002.
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