New York prison escape
Richard Matt, left, and David Sweat, right, were shot in separate shootouts with law enforcement in upstate New York. Matt died Friday. Sweat was captured Sunday. Reuters/New York State Police

One of two escaped convicts in New York was shot and killed Friday by law enforcement after a nearly three-week manhunt. Richard Matt, who turned 49 Thursday, was shot by Border Patrol as both sides exchanged gunfire about 20 miles south of the Canadian border and 30 miles northwest of the Clinton Correctional Facility, from where the two murderers escaped, the New York Post reported. The other fugitive, David Sweat, was still being sought.

A cabin in the area reportedly was burglarized Thursday, and DNA testing led investigators to Malone, New York, reportedly near where Matt was shot. Sources have indicated that Matt had a shotgun when he was fatally shot.

Authorities were tipped off to Matt and Sweat’s location after a resident noticed a misplaced liquor bottle in his cabin, and reports of an attempted carjacking came through.

Officials have been combing the area, searching houses and cabins, many of which are used for hunting and stocked with weapons. The cabins -- and there are thousands of them in the area -- are often empty and have been the focus of searches by law enforcement since at least Saturday, when DNA matching the fugitives was found about 15 miles from the Clinton prison.

The duo escaped with the alleged help of at least two prison workers. Joyce Mitchell is accused of hiding the tools that the fugitives used to cut through their cell to freedom in frozen meat. Gene Palmer is accused of actually handing off the meat to Matt in exchange for paintings of celebrities that Matt has become known for. Mitchell is said to have had a couple of reasons to aid the two murderers' escape, including a plot for them to kill her husband and an alleged sexual relationship with Sweat.

This wasn’t the first time Matt had broken out of a prison. He escaped from a different New York correctional facility in 1986.

Matt was serving 25 years to life for snapping the neck of his ex-boss and dismembering him. Sweat was serving a life sentence without parole for killing a Broome County sheriff’s deputy.

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