Escaped convict shot by state trooper near Canadian border

David Sweat, one of the men who escaped from a maximum security prison in New York state, has been shot and captured by police, putting an end to a 22-day manhunt.

It comes just two days after fellow escapee Richard Matt, was killed by police in the same woodlands. He was carrying a 20-gauge shotgun and was shot by a border patrol agent.

Sweat was apprehended in the town of Constable, in upstate New York, two miles south of the Canadian border. "I can only assume he was going for the border, that he was that close," said New York State Police Superintendent Joseph A D'Amico. He is recieiving treatment in hospital and is said to be in a critical condition.

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"The nightmare is finally over," said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. "We wish it didn't happen in the first place. But if you have to have it happen, this is how you want it to end."

The two men made a daring escape from a maximum security prison in New York State earlier this month, using power tools to drill holes through their cell walls, climbing along an open walkway, and navigating a complex network of pipes and tunnels before finally emerging through a manhole.

They were both convicted murderers. Sweat was given a life sentence without parole for killing a sheriff's deputy in 2002, while Matt was serving 25 years to life for kidnapping, killing and dismembering his former boss in 1997.

Police officers had been under pressure to capture Sweat alive so that officials could learn exactly how the men had escaped and who had helped them, says CNN.

Two prison workers have since have been arrested in connection with their escape, including prison tailor Joyce Mitchell. She has admitted she smuggled hacksaw blades into hamburger meat she gave to the prisoners.

"This was an extraordinary situation in many ways," Cuomo said. "If you were writing a movie plot they would say this was overdone. You had hacksaws delivered by a facilitator in ground-up meat."

Murderers on the run in New York after 'Shawshank' escape

8 June

A $10,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the capture of two inmates who made a daring escape from a maximum security prison in New York State.

The convicted murderers used power tools to drill holes through their cell walls, before climbing along an open walkway, six storeys above the ground, and navigating a complex network of pipes and tunnels before finally emerging through a manhole.

David Sweat and Richard Matt duped prison guards by leaving dummies made out of sweatshirts in their beds and left a taunting note behind for the authorities which read: "Have a nice day!"

It was a "sophisticated" plan that must have taken days to execute, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo told the Associated Press. "This is a crisis situation for the state. These are dangerous men capable of committing grave crimes again."

Sweat was given a life sentence without parole for murdering a sheriff's deputy in 2002, while Matt was serving 25 years to life for kidnapping, killing and dismembering his former boss in 1997.

"These are killers. They are murderers," said Cuomo. "There's never been a question about the crimes they committed. They are now on the loose, and our first order of business is apprehending them."

Their Shawshank Redemption-style escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, roughly 20 miles south of the Canadian border, has sparked a statewide manhunt involving hundreds of officers, police dogs and helicopters, the New York Post reports.

Authorities say this is the first time an inmate has managed to escape from the prison since it was built in 1865. How the men were able to get their hands on the power tools and navigate the network of tunnels to escape remains a mystery.

Prison escapes "are relatively rare," Martin Horn, former New York City corrections commissioner who is now a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice told Fox News.

"All over the country, prisoners are thinking and scheming every hour. The fact that escapes are as infrequent as they are is really remarkable," he said. "The one thing American prisons do very well is to hold on to their prisoners."