A convicted murderer Danelo Cavalcante who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison nearly two weeks ago taken into custody Wednesday morning.
Pennsylvania State Police announced, ending a manhunt that sent hundreds of law enforcement officers to the area.
Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan made the announcement Wednesday morning. A plane, a tornado, a police dog and more than 20 tactical officers involved in the dramatic capture of Danelo Cavalcante around 8 a.m. Wednesday in Chester County, authorities said.
Live Updates: Escaped killer in custody
Around 1 p.m. Wednesday, a plane flying over the search area picked up a heat signal on the ground. Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bevins said at a news conference.
A storm hit and lightning forced the plane out. And a tactical team of 20 to 25 officers secured the area and waited out the storm until morning.
Cavalcante was sleeping when police found him lying on top of a rifle. Which he had stolen from a nearby resident late Monday night.
Officers caught Cavalcante by surprise. And he tried to run by crawling through thick underbrush with a rifle in hand, Bevins said.
A police dog was released and bit him, preventing him from using the rifle. Then police took him into custody.
Bivens described Danelo Cavalcante as “defiant and still resisting arrest”. And noted that the dog left him with a scalp wound.
“When the dog got to him, he got on top of him with the dog — the dog could have stopped him there,” Beyoncé said.
“I was told the rifle was at arm’s length.”
Video of his arrest by CNN affiliate KYW shows Cavalcante in handcuffs and being escorted by more than a dozen heavily armed officers into the back of an armored special response team vehicle.
Cavalcante had blood on his face and was wearing dark pants and a Philadelphia Eagles hoodie. Which had been cut off his body before being placed in the car.
Several officers also took a group photo with the fugitive and the rifle.
No one else was injured during the arrest, Bivens said.
“For me, the biggest sense of relief is that no one in the community and law enforcement officers hurt,” Bivens said.
Law enforcement officers escorted Danelo Cavalcante from the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Avondale, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, September 13.
Robert Clark, supervisory deputy U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said Wednesday that Cavalcante was a “desperate man” during his nearly two weeks on the lam, surviving on a watermelon found in a field and drinking water.
Clark referred to what deputy marshals had told him about an interview Cavalcante had with law enforcement officials after the fugitive’s arrest.
“He was actively avoiding apprehensions, and right after he escaped from prison. He hunted in an area that was very, very desolate, very, very wooded and he moved for the first two days,” said Clark, who did not speak to Cavalcante.
Clark told media that Cavalcante also told law enforcement he planned to carjack someone by Thursday and fly to Canada to avoid authorities.
US doesn’t support any political party in Pakistan
“He said the law enforcement presence where he was was overwhelming, and he felt he needed to leave,” Clark said.