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Second Escapee David Sweat Shot By New York State Police, Now In Hospital

This story has been updated.

Convicted murder David Sweat as he is being taken into custody after being shot in Constable, N.Y., in a photo posted by CNN on Twitter.

Convicted murder David Sweat as he is being taken into custody after being shot in Constable, N.Y., in a photo posted by CNN on Twitter.

Photo Credit: @cnnbrk
Prison escapee David Sweat, 35, has been shot and is now in police custody.

Prison escapee David Sweat, 35, has been shot and is now in police custody.

Photo Credit: New York State Police
The red icon shows Constable, N.Y., located 40 miles northwest of the Clinton Correctional Facility.

The red icon shows Constable, N.Y., located 40 miles northwest of the Clinton Correctional Facility.

Photo Credit: Google Maps
Fugitive Richard Matt, 49, was shot and killed on Friday.

Fugitive Richard Matt, 49, was shot and killed on Friday.

Photo Credit: New York State Police

DANNEMORA, N.Y. -- The second of two upstate prison escapees has been shot by a New York State Police sergeant and captured less than two miles south of the Canadian border on Sunday afternoon, state police said.

David Sweat, 35, who was shot by Sgt. Jay Cook twice in the torso while attempting to flee into a roadside field, is being transported from a hospital near the site of the shooting, Constable, N.Y., to Albany Medical Center's trauma unit, according to reports.

No officers or civilians were injured in the shooting, which occurred after Cook, while alone in a patrol vehicle, spotted Sweat, who was wearing camouflage gear, walking down a roadway in Constable, according to state police. Sweat was not armed, state police said. Cook is also a firearms instructor, according to The New York Times.

The shooting comes three weeks and one day after Sweat and fellow convicted murderer Richard Matt escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility. Matt was shot and killed by authorities on Friday, near Maloney, N.Y.

Constable, N.Y., is located 40 miles northwest of the Clinton Correctional Facility, and about 14 miles north of the area where Matt was shot.

The New York Daily News obtained a trail photo show Matt and Sweat while on the run on Wednesday. You can view the photo here.

The daring escape from the Clinton Correction Facility on Saturday, June 6, prompted a massive manhunt that has cost approximately $1 million per day. More than 1,100 law enforcement officers have been in pursuit of the two, the first prisoners to ever escape from the maximum security prison in its 100-year history.

Sweat and Matt are believed to have used picnic-style pepper shakers while on the run through the dense wooded areas of New York's North Country to throw off bloodhounds in hot pursuit of their scent, state police said.

State police released autopsy results for Matt. Dr. Michael Sikirica determined the cause of death to be severe skull fractures and brain injuries as a result of gunshot wounds to the head.

An examination of the body revealed bug bites on the lower extremities, blisters, and minor abrasions consistent with living in the woods for three weeks, state police said.

A preliminary investigation revealed a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Tactical Unit member discharged several rounds from a semi-automatic weapon striking Matt in the head three times. Toxicology results are pending.

Sweat, a 5-foot-11, 165-pound white male from Dickinson, N.Y. (located east of Potsdam), is serving a sentence of life without parole following his conviction in Broome County for one count of first-degree murder after shot a Broome County Sheriff’s Deputy 22 times on July 4, 2002.

Matt, from Tonawanda, N.Y., was serving a sentence of 25 years to life following his conviction in Niagara County after he kidnapped his former boss and caused his death by beating him on Dec. 3, 1997.

Two employees at the Clinton Correctional Facility -- seamstress Joyce Mitchell and security guard Gene Palmer -- are under arrest and facing charges in assisting in the prisoners' escape. 

For more on the shooting death of Richard Matt, click here.

Check back to Daily Voice for more on this developing story.

 

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