Second NY Prison|Escapee Captured

(CN) - The second murderer who escaped from Dannemora prison in New York was shot and captured Sunday, ending a 23-day manhunt.

David Sweat was caught after a state policeman saw him jogging along a road near the Canadian border.

The officer, Sgt. Jay Cook, ordered Sweat to come to him, but Sweat ran away across a field. Cook chased him and shot him twice in the torso as the escapee approached woods, where Cook was afraid he was escape.

Sweat was in critical condition this morning at a hospital.

His fellow escapee, Richard Matt, was shot to death Friday, about 30 miles from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, NY, where he escaped with Sweat on June 6.

Matt, 49, was armed with a .20-gauge shotgun police believe he stole from a hunting cabin near Black Cat Mountain. The agent shot Matt when he refused to put his hands up, New York State Police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico said at a news briefing. D'Amico said Matt never fired a shot.

Matt was serving a 25-years-to-life sentence for the 1997 kidnapping, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of his boss at the time of their escape. Sweat was serving a life sentence for the murder of a sheriff's deputy.

A prison worker, Joyce Mitchell, has been charged with aiding the escape by allegedly hiding tools in meat. Prison guard Gene Palmer has been arrested and charged with promoting prison contraband, tampering with evidence and official misconduct in connection with the escape.

Matt and Sweat escaped by cutting through a metal wall and some pipes and tunnels, then crawling from a manhole outside prison wall. It was the first escape at that prison in 150 years.

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