Richard Matt, one of the two prisoners who escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility three weeks ago, has been shot and killed by federal agents in upstate New York’s Franklin County. The other prisoner, David Sweat, is still being pursued, though there have been no confirmed sightings of him, and authorities said on Friday night that they still can’t be certain that the two had been traveling together.
Matt was discovered after he fired on a camper this afternoon in Malone, NY and the driver called police. Customs and border patrol agents then arrived by helicopter and found Matt in the woods near where he had shot at the camper. When he was confronted, he was armed with a 20-gauge shotgun, and though Matt did not shoot at the agents, they fired upon and killed him when he did not comply with their orders.
David Sweat is still at large, and as of late Friday night, law enforcement officers, dogs, and helicopters continued to search within a 22-square-mile perimeter near Malone. There has not been a confirmed sighting of Sweat since he escaped.
More than 1,100 federal, state, and local officials have been working on the search, and they had to comb through more than 2,000 tips. On Thursday, authorities confirmed that there was DNA evidence that Matt had spent time in a cabin near Malone, after, according to the Plattsburgh Press-Republican, “signs of intrusion were found, and a sample of feces was tested.” Malone is some 30 miles from the prison where the convicts escaped from.
For more background on the past three weeks of the search for Richard Matt and David Sweat, click here.
This post has been updated to reflect new information.
