Agents dropped from copter, shot 1st of N.Y. escapees

U.S. Border Patrol special agents flew in via helicopter following reports of gunshots in northern New York during the manhunt for two escaped murderers, then found one of the fugitives cowering behind a tree and killed him when he raised a shotgun.

That detailed account of Richard Matt's death, which came after three weeks on the run, multiple close calls and many false sightings, came in a statement Thursday from the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Swanton, Vt., sector.

"Our agents were obviously expecting the worst on every one of those calls," Chief John Pfeifer said. "Very challenging terrain, challenging weather, lot of stress. You're dealing with some very bad individuals. Can't thank law enforcement enough for bringing these individuals back in."

The killers escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., late June 5 or early June 6 by cutting through their cell walls, navigating the maximum-security prison's labyrinthine catwalks, breaking through a brick wall, sawing into and out of a metal pipe and breaking a chain on a manhole cover beyond the lockup's walls down the street.

The murderers remained on the run for three weeks before Matt was killed and David Sweat was shot and captured.

Law enforcement concentrated its search for Matt, 49, and Sweat, 35, on the rugged woods and small towns near the prison after a woman that police say had agreed to be the getaway driver, prison tailor shop worker Joyce Mitchell, failed to show at the arranged time. She has pleaded not guilty to charges related to aiding the killers' escape.

The men split up about a week before the authorities ended the men's time on the lam.

Agents found Matt first.

On June 26, a resident of Malone, N.Y., told investigators about possible gunshots in the area. The Border Patrol deployed its Tactical Team Special Operations Group to the scene on two A-Star helicopters.

The choppers landed, and eight to 12 members of the team, known as BORTAC, entered the woods at 3:45 p.m. ET, Pfeifer said. They heard a cough and knew the sound was human.

"One of the agents came up on an individual who was lying down behind a fallen tree," he said in a Thursday call with reporters.

"Agents verbally ordered the individual to put his hands up. An agent observed the individual fail to comply with the verbal commands and aim what was later determined to be a 20-gauge shotgun at him," the chief said. "The agent discharged his service-issued M-4 rifle, striking the individual, who died at the scene."

No other agent fired a weapon, and Matt said nothing before he was killed.

An autopsy showed that three shots to the head killed Matt, according to New York State Police.

Then on Sunday, Sgt. Jay Cook of New York State Police spotted a man jogging down a road less than 2 miles from the Canadian border in Constable, N.Y., and confronted him. The jogger turned out to be Sweat.

He fled across a field once Cook recognized him, and the sergeant shot Sweat twice to prevent the escapee from reaching a treeline and potentially disappearing again into the woods.

Sweat is being treated at a hospital in Albany, N.Y., and is reported to be providing the authorities with details of his and Matt's escape scheme.

Announcing the capture of Sweat, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico praised Cook as a hero.

But the Border Patrol agent who killed Matt has remained anonymous. The agency says policy requires the identity be withheld pending an internal investigation into the shots he fired.

Sweat was serving a sentence of life without parole in the killing of a sheriff's deputy in Broome County in 2002. Matt was serving 25 years to life for killing and dismembering his former boss.

Contributing: Mike Donoghue, The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press