Escaped NY Murderer Richard Matt Shot Dead

Richard Matt and David Sweat escaped maximum-security prison in upstate New York on June 6

MALONE, N. Y.—Authorities fatally shot one of the two convicted murderers Friday who staged an elaborate escape from an upstate New York prison and remained at large for almost three weeks, according to two officials.

Richard Matt was shot and killed by police near Lake Titus in Franklin County, N.Y., a person familiar with the matter said.

The other escapee, David Sweat, was being pursued, the official said.

Another person familiar with the matter said Mr. Matt was shot by agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The search for the escapees has focused in the past few days around Lake Titus, less than 30 miles west of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., where the pair broke free June 6 after they cut through the steel walls of their cells and eventually emerged free from a manhole outside the prison walls.

Only hours earlier Friday, the New York State Police said investigators had found evidence linking the fugitives to a cabin in the Town of Malone, N.Y., north of Lake Titus.

Clinton County Sheriff David Favro said authorities were attempting to encircle David Sweat in the area of Elephants Head, N.Y., about 20 miles south of the Canadian border and about 300 miles north of New York City

“They’re trying to close him in,” Sheriff Favro said.

He didn’t immediately know whether Mr. Matt was armed in the confrontation with police.

“We’re 50% of the way there,” the sheriff said. “Let’s finish this up.”

 

Authorities were racing late Friday afternoon to the scene of the shooting in a rural area of Franklin County, N.Y. Police cars and forest rangers with lights flashing and sirens blaring were racing to the area, and authorities had blocked a state road leading the area.

The owner of a convenience store along state Route 30, off the western shore of Lake Titus and south Malone, said hundreds of state troopers had swarmed the remote area Friday afternoon.

Two prison workers have been arrested in connection with the case. A civilian prison employee, Joyce Mitchell, has been charged with aiding the convicts’ escape by allegedly passing along tools such as hacksaw blades inside hamburger meat. She has pleaded not guilty.

On Wednesday, a correctional officer at the prison, Gene Palmer, 57 years old, was arrested and charged in connection with allegations he passed inmates Messrs. Sweat and Matt needle-nose pliers and a flathead screwdriver, both forbidden items.

Events moved quickly after the lead Friday regarding the cabin in Malone. The state police said a reported burglary led officers to a cabin during the day on Thursday, followed by the discovery of more unspecified evidence at another site Friday morning in the town, police said.

The development follows the discovery last weekend of another cabin, in the area of nearby Owls Head, N.Y., that contained DNA and other evidence including underwear linked with escapees.

The fugitives had taken some items from the cabins that might assist them in their travels, and left some items behind—which the police have recovered and sent to a forensics lab for testing, said Maj. Charles Guess of the state police.

Mr. Sweat was serving a life sentence for murdering a sheriff’s deputy in 2002. Richard Matt had been serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the 1997 murder of his former boss.

The maximum-security prison in Dannemora is about 315 miles north of New York City near the Vermont border, close to Lake Champlain.

—Rebecca Davis O’Brien contributed to this article.