MALONE, N.Y. – Convict David Sweat has been captured by authorities after being shot twice by a New York State police officer during a confrontation near Constable, N.Y.
Sweat, 32, was being transferred to the Albany Medical Center Sunday night after being treated at a Malone hospital for gunshot wounds.
Sweat was captured five miles (eight kilometers) from the Canadian border after being spotted on a highway in the area.
It comes after convict David Matt, 48, was shot and killed by a border tactical team near the Town of Duane, south of Malone.
During a news conference Sunday night, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sweat is in stable condition at hospital.
A hospital official at Albany Medical Center later reported Sunday night that Sweat was listed in critical condition as he was undergoing surgery.
“The nightmare is finally over,” said Gov. Cuomo to cheers from the crowd at the news conference.
Cuomo said Sweat was spotted by New York State Police Sgt. Jay Cook in the Town of Constable and chased him by foot before pulling his firearm, shooting Sweat twice in the torso.
The governor said having Sweat alive will help answer questions on the first escape from Clinton Correctional Center in 100 years.
“If you have to have it happen, this is the way you want it to end,” Cuomo added.
New York State Police Superintendent Joseph D’Amico said Sgt. Cook, a 21 year veteran with the force, spotted Sweat jogging along the highway in Constable around 3:20 p.m. and approached him where he fled toward a treeline.
Fearing Sweat would disappear into the treeline, D’Amico said the officer decided to shoot the fleeing escapee.
The police superintendent believes Sweat was trying to make his way to the border.
Matt and Sweat were on the run since June 6, 2015 after escaping the Clinton Correctional Center in Dannemora, N.Y. 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.
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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