hearing the reports that david sweat may have been shot and is in custody. haven't been able to confirm it here on the frond but we have sources that david sweat has been shot but not killed. as you mentioned, his accomplice richard matt was shot and killed on friday with a member of the border protections unit tactical team. h was carrying a shotgun at the time. they believe both men to be armed. matt refused ords to put down his weapon and comply and they put three bullets in his head according to the autopsy report. we don't know if law enforcement shot david sweat this afternoon. if they did, which team of law enforcement was involved in this shooting. as you know there are 1300 members of law enforcement here from local county state and federal agencies and they've all been working side by side in a variety of capacities. we've seen tactical units on atratr trkst atvs with weapons, correctional

officers on foot we've seen federal agents using helicopters and other teams uses canine dog to track the teams. i'm hearing in my ear we've been able to confirm that david sweat has in fact been shot and is in fact in custody. the question is where is he going. we have crews in the area north of malone where we believe the shooting occurred that say that ambulances have been streaking by. we don't know where he's being taken but he would presumably be taken under police guard to a hospital to be treated and then probably bought to a county jail where he will be processed and then put in another high security prison most likely up here in the malone area. one place he's not going is back to clinton correctional. >> this is a tremendous development if indeed this is the case as we're reporting, caught wounded, still alive. a big relief for the people of

upstate new york and the authorities who have been tracking this dangerous killer for so long. >> reporter: no doubt about it. >> local newspaper has a report -- >> reporter: i was just going to say, you know -- >> a local paper had a report previously that he said if he ever was in this type of situation and cops came he would quote blow them away. rick is there any indication or too early to give me the details on whether or not this confrontation came down if indeed he was armed, if tluz with gun fire or if he was drunk and just stood there with the shotgun in his hands and that's what i he was shot to death. >> reporter: we don't have any information yet on david sweat's condition when he was caught. but we have the autopsy results from richard matt's autopsy. and as you mentioned at the top, this cause of death was severe

skull fractures and skull injuries due to three gunshot wounds to the head. he was also according to franklin county coroner, apparently in pretty good health without showing any severe signs of bug infestation. he had been fully dressed, they said in outdoor clothing. there were reports as you mentioned that he wreaked of alcohol. we haven't been able to confirm that either. the d.a. says that the autopsy results, the toxicology results are expected in a couple of weeks. but again law enforcement sources confirmed to fox that david sweat has has been shot he's in custody. we don't know if shots were fired. we don't know if he was arm. but again authorities have presumed from the beginning that he was carrying a weapon that he likely stole from one of the hunting cabins that the two two men have been hanging out in.

>> we have judge jeanine pirro on the phone, one of the first to get the news that david sweat has been shot and is in custody. janine first of all, thise because they've got him alive and let's hope that he stays alive so they can get information from this guy to prevent this from happening again and to get the two alleged accomplices in hot water in order to prove that they in fact helped these two guys get on the run >> well yeah. listen. we hope that he does survive. he has been shot. and we certainly can get all kinds of information from him. but this is why we believe -- i believe that the system in that prison was a mess beyond the couple of people doing it that have been arrested. there's no question that this man will have information if he choose to talk.

he's got no real leverage. life in prison without parole. but this will give everybody a chance to think about these people who have life in parole. we have to look at the new york department of corrections, what were they doing with these guys in the on nor program. they were the most violent of the violent in a maximum security prison. but hopefully he'll survive so that they can get some information. somebody on the outside had to tell them where to cut through that pipe. you know they could do as much as they could, you know behind their cells, they knew what they had to do the catwalk, they had access to apparently over and over again. it was no big deal. but who on the outside told them where to cut to jump out if you'll recall where they left that whatever have a nice day. so there's a lot on the line right now.

but the most important thing is that we get a sense of what this guy did, how did he survive for three weeks. was he given the opportunity to go into cabins of corrections officers that he might have known about? we already know that some -- one of the cabins was owned by corrections officer. bottom line kudos to the law enforcement. they are the best of the best. they continue usually were determined they did it' god bless them that nobody was hurt. janine, we're going back to richard. >> reporter: i'm told he was shot in the count to have constable, just a couple of miles from the canada border. we had been told on friday afternoon that they were concerned that both of these men might be headed toward canada

which was roughly 20 to 30 miles from that location. but we're now hearing that's caped killer was in fact shot and wounded in a town just a couple of miles from canada. so it seems clear that he was headed in that direction and trying to make his way out of the united states. >> rick the police -- you interviewed the sheriff yesterday. part of their tactics was to put up a line. they've had police officer and others 50 feet apart as part of that perimeter to potentially prevent him from going to canada. do you think that was successful? that is andwhat stopped them from getting that far and led to the shooting apparently and wounding of him today. >> reporter: well they have a large team of some 1300 officers and agents work this case. but they need more than 1300 people to draw a line across the canadian-u.s. border and stop them from crossing. they had a lot of eyeballs up there. they were looking very hard for

him in that region. we saw police on our way from near the canadian border to this location today who were posted along the roads between here and there. but they were also searching here. there was a 22-square mile perimeter set up around the area where richard matt was shot on friday. they thought perhaps that sweat was contained in this general area. but he did manage to get outside of that perimeter and make his way up toward the canadian border. we had heard earlier today from new york senator chuck schumer that they found food with dna evidence liked to david sweat, in an area five miles of this location. but we're not sure what led him to the current location or to the location where he was shot. law enforcement confirming that david sweat, the second of the two escapees the only one still on the run has been shot is in custody and in stable condition. >> david sweat accepted a plea deal for a broome county deputy

shooting in which the death penalty was taken off the table. he was serving life without parole. matt could have potentially been up for parole later on. the two of them had been drinking. but nonetheless, you know lit be interesting to learn exactly what kind of exchange was made before sweat was shot if he in fact shot back at police. any idea if he resisted? the fact that he's alive, they didn't shoot to kill says something. >> reporter: well aim not getting information yet on whether there were shots fired, whether this was a gun battle. but authorities were prepared for that possibility because this was a man with nothing to lose serving life without parole as you mentioned and knowing full well he was going to go back not just to prison but to a much more harsher prison life. he had gotten a lot of privileges when he was at clinton correctional. made his way to the honor block.

able to cook food in his own cell and watching television work in a tailor shop and having relationships with a civilian employee who worked in that tailor shop who is facing charges of aiding enabetting these two men's escape. he had a good life behind bars at clinton. he won't get that kind of life behind bars when he's returned to a maximum security facility after treatment of his injury. >> judge jeanine pirro joins us on the phone. we're talking about how this guy has nothing to lose. he certainly has nothing to gain cooperating with law enforcement. he's behind bars and he's going to be in a whole world of hell once they put him there. >> what leverage do they have with him? if he's in solitary confinement, a different kind of life, he may be willing to give out some information about the lack of security at a so-called maximum security prison.

now that he's in custody, what we need to do is make sure that this doesn't happen again. and i think that's going to take june to make sure -- hello? >> i'm sorry. it sound like your phone might be breaking. we can hear you though. >> let me finish what i was saying. what we need to do is make sure this thing doesn't happen again by doing a full-on investigation of these maximum security facilities the lack of control they have the fact that from 10:30 at night to 5:30 in the morning there were no checks in a maximum security facility. that is systemic. that is a real problem. then we have to look at the law. if you promote prison contraband and the most you get is seven years, those laws have to be changed. if a guy is serving life without the possibility of parole for murder and if he had, god forbid killed one of those

police officer ors law enforcement agents out there, he faces no additional penalty. and i think we need to recognize that there are violent criminals who will do whatever they need to do to get out of prison especially the ones who have nothing to lose. >> that point that you just made had god forbid these two killed somebody while they were on the run, the two people who were accomplices of theirs could have been held responsible for murder and they were not. now the question is the death penalty. these two guys were on death row. and then death penalty gets removed from new york and they're on life without parole. at this point it seems like they should relook at that system. we wouldn't be in this mess if he had the death penalty. >> in addition to that i think that with sweat, i think there was some kind of agreement that he would take life without parole. and i'm not sure that matt ever faced murder one, which has the death penalty. and i said this right from the

get-go. why don't these guys have chips in them. if they're never supposed to be out of a prison, what are they doing being able to get dressed free as a bird walking around. they need a chip. we need to know where these guys are. if they could have they would have taken hostages. there's a whole bunch of scenarios that we could fathom right here. plus that canadian border where sweat was found or that area -- and my sources tell me it was near the canadian border as well. you've got tribal lands, tribal police water. i mean e he could have made it out. and you know thank god that he didn't. but it is time to look at that new york state department of corrections to look at the laws. and this is nothing new. those of us who have been in law enforcement as i have for 30 years have said that the death penalty in certain cases is the only option that is appropriate in some cases. >> judge, a quick question eric

shaun here. from what you know after decades of law enforcement experience if he is alive, and let's say he lives, do you think he'll cooperate or just clam up knowing the no tear yous killer he is. >> the guy is a dirt bag. make no mistake about it. he shoots a sheriff's deputy ten, 15 times, not dead yet so he runs over him with his car. the victim in this case was a 34-year-old guy as i understand it. this guy is a dirt bag. and these guys need to be punished appropriately. but what leverage do we have on sweat? i'm not sure. but they can make it miserable enough for him so that he says look if you take me out of this area and put me in this area or give me the food i want or whatever. it's time to play hard ball with these guys. we treat them as if they deserve as of the, you know all of the benefits of life. what the hell is a guy doing in an honor program having a hot

plate in his cell with hamburger meat delivered to him. i couldn't have a hot plate in any darnlorm when i was in college. >> and they're allegedly swapping paintings for the illegal privileges. stay with us judge. we go to peter ducey who is live at the scene with some of the developments. peter? >> reporter: eric we pulled on to the scene just a few minutes ago and shortly after we did, an ambulance escorted by several state police vehicles came out and went that way. i asked one of the troopers if that is sweat and he said yes. david sweat is being treated for gunshot wound or gunshot wounds at the same hospital where they took his alleged accomplice joyce mitchell when she apparently had some kind of a panic attack the night of the big escape. now more than three weeks ago. but i can tell you as soon as we

pulled up even while there was still a lot of activity there and there was still an ambulance down there -- we're not exactly sure how far done or which side of the street it happened yet. but there was already a sense of calm. people have been pulling up to the trooper asking him what happened and he's been smiling telling them it's going to be a few hours before things are cleaned up. but something good has happened. and you can sense with the law enforcement who have been very, very tense during very unpleasant searching condition for 22 days a sense of calm. and they got him. they got him. and you get a sense just from being here even just a few minutes after this fugitive murderer and convicted cop killer was taken away in an ambulance that the manhunt is over. >> any indication how this went down contrasting with what happened with richard matt not in a gun battle. do we have any information if there was indeed any type of

shootout, if he refused to surrender surrender, how he was shot how many times he was shot and we have no reports yet on the condition he was in whether the wound or wounds are indeed life threatening or if he's expected to live. anything about that at all at the moment? >> reporter: eric this just happened a few minutes ago. we don't have a ton of details. but it's different from the location from where richard matt was shot which is a heavily wooded area. this is somewhat rural, but it is a residential area. in fact there's a church st. francis roman catholic church that i'm thinking had mass a few hours before we got here this morning on a sunday morning. it's just right here. and then it's down what appears to be -- we haven't been on this street yet but it does appear to be a house -- street that is lined with houses where people live. this is also not near the area that we've been reporting from

for the last few days. this is several miles away from downtown malone and it's probably a 20-minute drive from where the police have been staging up near the lake titus area. quite a bit a ways from that. but it's really something. it's going to be quite remarkable to find out how he made it over here because there are so many people around. it's bright out. it's the middle of the day dp there are a lot of people now obviously with the excitement. there are a lot of cars out. and there was a fugitive murderer one of the u.s. marshal's 15 most wanted people the same person that 1300 law enforcement officers have been looking for the last 22 days in a 22-square mile search area as of this morning and he was here next to somebody's house potentially. that's a very scary thought. with that said the fact that he was around here it is very

fortunate that nobody else was injured. because we don't have any reports of injuries. you asked about the condition of david sweat. as best as we understand it the ambulance that took off with sweat in it was not racing away. it was driving quickly around and it did have a police escort. but it was not driving super -- at super speeds warped speeds down this road which was cleared for it to go down and to pass on. and we know that he was down there for at least a few minutes before being taken away in the ambulance. so whatever his wounds are, it does not appear that he was loaded immediately into the ambulance and taken away. whether that's because he still had to be neutralized, whether there was a violent struggle we still don't know. it was a few minutes from the time we got there. this street was already closed five to ten minutes before he was taken away in the ambulance

down that way from where he is right now with a heavy police presence. >> the state police asked people to say, if you see anything that's unusual, and it was capitalized, anything any sign of trespass in the case of matt, the cabin owner said they saw a bottle of again hadgin had been moved. can we take a look at that? >> reporter: let's take a wider shot. >> what happened? was it down that street? >> reporter: it was down this street. i don't want to cross -- they've asked us to kind of stay back. tommy, if we could show a little bit -- i mean eric across the street there's somebody's house here. it looks like it's for sale or lease. and then this way, a few hundred feet away there's another house, a church looks like another house down there.

this is not an area where there were a lot of troopers congregating earlier. they've responded because of what's happened. in the next two lock probably ten houses on this side five houses on this side. there are a lot of people around who knew what he looked like because his picture is in every restaurant every family coffee shop on all of the local tv stations and they have been concerned that he's around as he would be since he has such a violent criminal history. >> what you're indicating is it's a very crowded neighborhood this very likely came from a public tip. if there was mass at the church and it let out, people walking on the sidewalk it's raining but the rain has stopped, someone sees him walking down the street oar in the back yard of a house and potentially calls the state police and that's where it happened. of course this is all speculation on the possibility,

but if he was indeed caught and captured in that residential area quite a difference than the situation with richard matt. >> reporter: right. and again, we are having a difficult time partly because of the distance and also because of the thick tree cover, these big trees that we've seen everywhere as we've been covering the story for the last three weeks. but it does appear like this is a residential poplar road here in covington -- is that the neighborhood where we are right now? i think it's covington. they're busy on the phone right now trying to figure out -- it is covington -- constable. excuse me. but we are here. it's poplar road looks like a nice place that you would want to raise kids, have a swing set in the back yard and probably the last place you would expect a fugitive mushder who escaped from a maximum security prison 40 miles away to end up. and eric it's within of those things where driving through the

forests with the heavy police presence and the helicopters and the dogs for the last few weeks, you had kind of a spooky feeling at times that a dangerous man or men could just jump out at any time and get you. that's not something you would really be feeling in this neighborhood. this is a neighborhood that even without all of the police around would feel like it is kind of safe. and again, this is not where -- at least if the last few days we've seen the heaviest concentration of the police searching. >> peter, you know this obviously is a very different takedown than of his accomplice. it apparently turns out that his his accomplice matt had been shot three times in the head. that's in fact how they got him down. an autopsy came out yesterday, state police confirming three skull fracture to matt's head. this on the other hand if there was any kind of threat or if

david sweat pointed a gun at police they would have shot to kill. at this point it seems that the police wanted to take him down so they could take him into custody alive. and this guy didn't react as violently as his accomplice. peter, stand by. i want to bring in the former new york police detective. pat, can you hear me? >> loud and clear. >> your first gut reaction, you hear about this guy, he's in custody, he's been shot, he's alive and he's being transported to the hospital. sounds like they did some pretty good police work today. >> they did extraordinary police work. 1100 bloodhounds have tracked these guys for three weeks, cornered them against astonishing odds over 6 million acres up there. and took the one down he wanted to go suicide by cop in any view. a hopeless situation.

evidently this individual naught otherwise and as a result of it he apparently is till breathing. but the key thing to remember is when you live by the sword you die by the sword. in this case he was injured by the sword. he made a conscious decision to not pose an imminent threat to these 1100 bloodhounds that had him cornered. and that's a good thing. the most important thing to note is that no one, no one has been injured since they escaped except themselves. that's a grand slam home run. >> taken alive. trying to get more information on how in the world thee guys pulled this off. two people that worked within the prison system allegedly help them escape. there's a lot of speculation that this has to run deeper than that. these guys had access to the catwalks theyed a access to electrical boxes where they rewired electrical boxes in order to gain them access to cooking red meat in their cells.

i mean they were actually given these privileges two convicted murderers who were deemed for the death penalty, the death penalty gets taken off the table and they get life in prison. obviously there's a huge problem within the prison system. >> absolutely. there's no question in my mind. when i read that i was astonished. i didn't know those sort of privileges existed. the fact is the best thing about him being taken alive is he's available to provide actual intelligence to help them prevent future jailbreaks. there's no question in my mind this extends further -- >> the first cabin where the dna was found is directly related to prison officials. prison officials had to have given some information in these

guys my cabin is located here. here's where you can find some relief. the question is what is the incentive of anyone working on the inside to help these guys get on the outside. what is the incentive. they're barely paid. the first woman arrested and the second guy who was arrested, as they're alleged accomplices, provided them tools, the second guy unknowingly giving them tools, complained about their salaries and that their lives were terrible and that they lived in this world where they're every day coming in and out hating their job. what's incentive? >> it's astonishing. if you look at the history, there's a baseline of historical references. richard matt was an extremely smooth talker and extremely smooth charismatic who was able

to entice and hypnotize this woman. >> she had sex with both of them. >> that's the allegation. i don't doubt it for a second. >> what about the second guy? >> the second guy comes back, it comes back to commerce. he was taking their paintings which he believes had value. there was an exchange of commerce. he wanted to comott tiez the paintings of david sweat and richard matt because they do have value. and they have greater value now. >> sure. there's a fascination that you want to have something to do with these two. >> yeah. >> absolutely. but i'm with you all the way. i think that we'll discover now if he's able to speak, and hopefully he is -- >> if he does speak, why would he be forth right with investigators? why would he say yeah, here's how i did it yeah these guys helped me and now you're going to put me in solitary

confinement. >> it's always the bigger fish. listen his life he's looking at solitary for an undetermined amount of time. he can trade, he can trade information or intelligence for what you and i are think of trooifling perks. but to him they're monumental. he's got 9,000 pounds of lockdown on him. he'll trade. there's no question about it. you can be reasonable certain they'll uncover in any view other individuals who were complicit. it's too wide ranging, too in-depth too comprehensive, that this knock luckle head would be eating hack burgmburgers. >> if you stay on the line with us, we want to bring people up to date.

bottom of the hour now. david sweat serves life in prison for killing a sheriff's deputy from new york in 2002 has been caught. the latest information that we have is that he was shot by police in upstate new york just a few miles from the canadian border. no detailed information at the moment of whether there was a gunfight or how this went down. but certainly i it is a big sense of relief for the people of upstate new york for the law enforcement authorities that have been diligently and desperately searching for him for the past three weeks after the killing of his accomplice seen there on the left richard matt on friday. and our rick leaven thal has been on the case. rick what do you have? >> reporter: well i can tell you that i've just spoke within a law enforcement source who tells me that it was in fact new york state police that shot difd sweat in constable, new york which is as you mentioned, a few

miles from the canadian border. the new york state police had been hammering that area since last night because of evidence they developed and leads they were tracking. they were aware, they knew or believed very strongly that david sweat was in fact headed north of malone towards canada that they were in that area and had been since at least last night in big numbers looking for him. we can't confirm if there was a gun battle prior to sweat being shot. can't confirm whether shots fired at offices. can't confirm how badly he was injured. but we're told he's stable and not life threatening. he may have been walking along a road and was confronted and that's when he apparently didn't comply with orders and was shot but not killed. david sweat shot by new york state police which is the lead agency on this case and obviously wanted to get him and rallied all of the other law

enforcement to join in the search for the past 23 days. new york state police the agency that in fact caught david sweat. he's now in custody being treated for injuries at a nearby hospital. >> an absolutely terrific win and victory for law enforcement here in new york and by the new york state trooper pps kudos and hats off of them. peter was at the seen in con staubl a residential neighborhood. maybe sweat was walking down the sidewalk when we was confronted, as you say. >> reporter: obviously there are people who live in con stable but sit a rural area. it's pretty wide open and much flatter than where we are in the adirondacks. roughly 25 miles south of there. it's a farm area. woods as well. but it's rural. you know there are people that live there. obviously houses. but kind of wide open. and plenty of places for him to

hide and conceal himself as he made his way from this area to that area. as far as the new york state police are concerned and all of the members of law enforcement involved in the search they have been working tirelessly and in pretty rough conditions. i spoke to a trooper this morning who told me that this was the first daylight that he had seen since he had been working the night shift for the past nine days and had been in the woods for most of that time. it's been raining today, raining on anoff for much of the 22 days of the search. these guys were tired but they were determined. >> they must have a great sense of vindication, personal vindication because sweat was convicted, life in prison for a murder of a broome county sheriff. this is how it went down. sweat and an accomplice broke into and stole goods from a pennsylvania fireworks store. they went to a ball field in a new york town in broome county

when the deputy at 3:00 in the morning, drove his car up on them got out of the car and according to the testimony sweat then shot the deputy and ran him over. so there certainly must be a great sense of justice and vindication right now by those tireless and hardworking law enforcement officers that he is indeed in custody. >> reporter: absolutely. and they would have wanted to catch him no matter what the circumstance. but certainly the fact that he killed a police officer and was sentenced to life in prison and busted out, gave them extra motivation to track him down and catch him and bring him back to justice. of course richard matt was also convicted of murder. he killed two people, one down in mexico. he was doing 25 to life and was carrying a shotgun when authorities say he was shot and killed. we don't know if sweat was armed, but it would make sense if he was and thortsz were working under the assumption that he was when he was shot

today in constable. so it's pretty remarkable when you consider how long they were looking for him and the fact that he was able to make his way out of this heavily forested area to a location some 20 miles north of here. he was tireless in his efforts to allude law enforcement but fortunately they were better at their job. >> once we heard the word that richard matt was in fact killed there was question as to whether or not matt and sweat were together at the time. there was no reason to believe they were not together however there was no evidence saying that they were one way or the other. now that we know where david sweat was actually shot and captured what does that tell us about their whereabouts, were they together possibly when matt was shot yesterday or in fact had they already separated by then in. >> reporter: they may well have been together. that area was matt was shot was south of malone. the area where he was caught today is well north of the town. >> how far apart?

>> reporter: a distance that could have been travel l -- i don't have the mapquest to where matt was shot to where sweat was captured. i would estimate 25 miles, maybe 30. but it's a distance in three days you could cover in foot if you were traveling at night and using trails, roadways whatever. it's possible. but we don't know if he was with them. there are reports that they found food wrappers with dna evidence linked to sweat a mile from where matt was killed. but we don't know if the wrapper were left there that day and sweat was able to allude the officers on friday afternoon. there's things that they need to figure out. but certainly at some point they split up and that's one of the things that the trooper said to me this morning. we know he's alone now. whether she was alone on friday we don't know. but somehow he managed to make his way up to constable a few miles from the canadian border

where he was apparently shot and caught by new york police today. >> it's a six-mile path between the two locations. >> 12 miles. >> 12 miles i'm being told now. >> it would seem to me they were at some point together. you talked to a sheriff yesterday. you've been talking to law enforcement through this whole thing that said yesterday, if we don't get him today, we believe tomorrow will be the day and they've had that perseverance ever day. >> every day i wake up and say today is the day. and then when the night shift comes on every night we're saying tonight is the night. if not tonight, then tomorrow. the funny thing is he said that to me yesterday, tomorrow will be the day. there's more evidence that these guys were focused, determined. they knew they had the resources they needed to catch them. it's pretty remarkable in many ways that these guys were able to avoid detection for 21 and then 23 days. except that you consider the landscape out here.

it's thick brush, the mountains, the thousands of hunting cabins and sheds where they could hide and lay low and eventually it caught up to them. people went to check on their cabin, saw things amiss and called police. they had to move to another hiding place. they happened a few times. but they couldn't do that forever. even if david swetat made tight the border he could have been taught tonight or tomorrow by canadian authorities. >> i want to go to the new york police detective who joins us on the phone again. it's interesting what rick points most likely these guys were together yesterday, then one is shot and then they're on their own. law enforcement said with him on his own, david sweat had a much harder time evading police. and he was obviously making his way toward canada. that was something that was broadcast three weeks ago, that they were concerned that perhaps these two were headed toward canada. the time in all of this to prevent them from getting into canada was key.

and the minutes were clicking because once they got into canada what happens then? >> well i tell you, exactly, you hit the nail squarely on the head. on the one side you have extreme density, 6 million acre pps all of those dark stars, in alignment for this cop killer. and he was extremely lucky. people do pull royal straight flushes which accounts for the ability to travel 20 miles in that flat landscape. but the bottom line is the noose was tightening. the new york state police under the superintendent's guidance they were closing the loop on this bad guy. they had all of the boxes checked. it was just a question of time. it comes down to logistics and the pragmatic assessment of acreage. he had all of the luck in the world, he really did but his luck ran out. i shared this with rick he

wasn't just a needle in a hay stack. he was really is a needle in a pile of needles for the first 18 days when he was stuck with matt. but his luck ran out. i salute these guys. it was a fantastic job. no one hurt but the bad guy. that's a grand slam. >> i want to make one thing clear and maybe you can explain it to us. people on twitter mentioned to me that the police do not shoot to kill they shoot to stop. when you have somebody like david sweat shot and taken into custody, what does law enforcement do to stop these guys and take them in when shot have to be fired, considering that richard matt yesterday was in fact shot three times in the head. we don't want to call that shot to kill but at the same time you shoot smob in the head and most likely they're going to be dead. >> well you know it's easy for, you know laypersons to misinterpret the justifiable use of deadly force as it relates to

convicted cop killing murderers and beheaders, versus a standard a felon with a weapon or without a weapon. the exact same criteria applies in terms of an imminent threat to the officer or an imminent threat to a third party. even though thee guys in my view clearly deserved everything they got, they still got it within the very very tight confines of justifiable use of force under not only the new york state constitutional guidelines the federal guidelines but also under the auspices of the new york state police which have their own guidelines which supersede. so what you have here is a textbook situation. these guys rose and either pointed a guy, the first guy and got three bullets in the head. the second guy we don't have any statistic to report. but i guarantee you what we have is a textbook case of

justifiable use of force. >> and we've got to give kudos to the guy, whichever officer it was that put bullets in this guy that he didn't kill him. this guy actually killed an officer. they managed to bring him in alive when they could have easily killed him and nobody would have questioned them. >> it's extraordinary given all of the factors. now we can debrief and interrogate this guy and trade with him to help them preclude and prevent any other pending cases of jailbreak as well as bring to justice anybody else who helped the two. hats off to the way that was handled by the new york state police. certainly we'll be hearing from governor andrew cuomo at some point and the superintendent of the police. pat with your experience so many years, any sense of how this went down? we were told to introduce the

reporting -- we're looking at a scene in constable, new york. down that street at some point, some of the reports were that sweat was walking down the street, he's confronted does not comply. how does he get there. obviously one would think with a change of clothes over the past three week pps what do you think happened? a public tip? one seeing him? suspicion? based on your experience what do you think happened? >> well it's impossible to speculate with any precision. it's certainly an investigation. but i would surmise, based on my 30 years of experience as well as being intimately familiar with the facts of the case and the presence of the internet and the ability to transmit photos of these individuals despite their clothes change or any other attempts to gain a shade of anonymity on their side very simply an individual in the street could have seen him walking, somewhat unusual.

i'm certain everybody in that area is on pins and needles since there was an unapprehended cop killer on the loose somewhere in that area. people on the street are our eyes and ears. if that was the circumstance as it may have been kudos to those individuals. but the bottom line is it was really just a manifestation of the tightening of the screw, the turning of the screw where it was becoming a fine amount of acreage and him in the middle of it. and the new york state police -- this does not come easy for me but today and every other day, they are also the new york finest. it doesn't come easy to say that. nobody hurt. i was sweating that they would do a break-in it would be something that happened down in connecticut or the nightmare down in washington, d.c. with that quadruple recently. all of the ingredients were

there. it was a recipe for disaster. these guys on the loose picking upshot guns on the fly, cabins. what a great end to a really really scary set of facts and a really terrifying scenario. >> stay with us. you're absolutely right. they apparently were armed. they could have taken hostages. they could have broken in some place. obviously matt trying to car jack the camper which the driver didn't know about until he finally pulled into the camping ground a few miles down the road seeing that his camper was shot. this could have kept on going horrendously with potential hostages. thankfully no one but the two escapees wounded in the situation. back live now with more on the developments there. rick? >> reporter: eric just to weigh in on what may have led the troopers officers and agents to this location a law enforcement force tells me that they were hammering that area since last night. that tells me that they had

information that they had developed through either tips or leads or evidence recovered on the ground that told them that david sweat was headed north towards canada. as early as last friday the new york state police had information that they believed these men were headed north and west towards canada. they caught matt in friday afternoon. but they had information that they were tracking. they had more than 2400 tips as of this weekend from the public and leads they were following up on. we were not told the details of many of the tips and calls that they were getting for obvious reasons because they were in the middle of an investigation trying to track an escaped killer. what i would surmise is they developed evidence that told them that this man was headed north. they were tracking him somehow. they had a sense that he was up in that area fsh some reason probably due to hard evidence and they were in that area in

heavy numbers as of last night. today when they spot this man, they were ready for him. that's how he was caught. >> it's remarkable that they've done the fast dna tests on the water bottle that shouz dna of both sweat and matt and they've done a quick dna test of the soiled underwear, as well as the candy wrappers in the woods, one would think that maybe they had some potential dna evidence that led them to the location in constable. >> reporter: most likely. the field dna tests are not as reliable as the one you get from the lab. they can do a field dna test and it's goings to give you 11 out of 16 probabilities, not the 99.9% probability you'll get if you send it to the lab. they get the field test done saying this is probably him. but they can't wait two or three days. they have to work based on what

they found in the field. this proved to be true in the case certainly of richard matt and now of david sweat. >> david sweat 35 years old, serving life in prison for killing a sheriff's deputy has been caught. we're told he's wounded. taken to a local hospital in upstate new york with some type of injuries. we'll see if he indeed will remain alive to potentially or not potentially tell authorities about how the prison break went down especially when you have two prison workers charged. go ahead. >> reporter: my sources are telling me these are not life threatening injuries. and our information is that david sweat is in stable condition. not expected to die from the wounds he received today at the hands apparently of the new york state police officer or tactical member who shot him in con stable. he's not expected to die from the wounds but he will most certainly serve the rest of his life behind bars. >> the question is not expected

to die but will he talk. rick thank you. >> we're going to move over to peter boocy in constable new york. malone new york is six miles from where you are. that's a ten-minute drive, a couple days walking. really it wasn't a far distance away. peter, you have more information about the neighborhood which you've been talking about as being a very residential neighborhood. it will be interesting to find out more as to how the investigators tracked him to this particular town. you wouldn't think in a residential neighborhood you would find a convicted murderer and escapee. >> reporter: julie, i just got some new information about that. i've been trying to work the scene and i've been asking people here if a tip was phoned in or if they just came across the fugitive murderer. what we're hearing here is that there were just officers around and that they saw david sweat and that something happened.

but now he is in the hospital in custody with a gunshot wound or wounds. but we talked to neighbors, they say there was a lot of activity just about five miles or few days ago but as of this morning not a lot on this street where we are told there are a lot of families. one guy has eight kids and grand kids would live here and the streets around here. it sounds like they got lucky. their strategy, whichever part of the strategy brought them to this street, worked because an officer who was in place looking for david sweat saw david sweat confronted david sweat and apprehended david southwest who new is at the hospital. >> there are many reports that sweat initially ran off after matt was gunned down near the cabin where the men were thought to be hiding and officers heard sweat running from the scene and fired another round of bullet but they missed.

did you hear about that? >> we have not heard about that. in the last few hours before we heard all of the sirens from the place we are staying headed in this direction we got up and out and heed this way, new york senator schumer announced there was at some point in the last few days d.n.a. found on some sort of food left over a mile away from the spot where his partner in crime richard matt, ended up being confronted bit forder patrol agents refusing to surrender and shot dead ending his time, his prison escape right there in a wooded area. we do not know anymore about how david sweat managed to get away. we do not know if david sweat was, in fact, right there because until today that happened on friday, richard matt was taken down. until today no one had laid eyes on him on david sweat since he

left prison. there were no confirmed sightings of david sweat from the time one of the correctional officers last saw him in his cell at the clinton correctional facility 40 miles away from here from the epicenter now of where the manhunt just ended. something that is remarkable, for the last three weeks wherever you go where you know they are looking for the fugitives in are roadblocks set up there are officers armed going door-to-door. we saw that this morning with new york state police troopers going door-to-door, in the rain, through the grass checking out garages. it is start eming scene but in less than an hour at 3:55 david sweat was taken down the street in an ambulance. an hour later there is hardly anyone here. i see two new york state police troopers with their sirens or with the lights on and that is

it. it is over. it is really remarkable how quickly things helped. they just...this officer who was in the right place at the right time based on good planning by the higher ups trying to chart exactly where david sweat may have been, put an officer there he saw him and he took him down and now just an hour later look two more officers are leaving and one arrived. there is not even a roadblock. there is still activity down, probably a third of a mile down or half a mile down the road where this shooting took place where the convicted cop killer was an rehenned bit new york state police. now there is nothing. it happened so quickly sit hard to believe. >> peter can you move to the

left we are told this went down on poplar street. >> this is poplar street. >> and roman catholic church here on the left, st. francis and poplar street where it looks like the cars now are able to return. someone came up who lives down there and complains they were being told they could not return to their house for three to six hours while the scene was being contained but it looks like there is a flood of vehicles down there now and no one is stopping them so when we are done talking we are going to pack up our gear if it is okay with the producer and the photographer and we will try and get closer and get a better look at what exactly is going on. >> the scene is being processed. finally, peter he is shot but there are no reports of a new york state trooper being shot. we can be thankful from that.

you can deduce maybe he because not armed maybe he was but it went down in a fairly residential neighborhood as opposed to out in the middle of the woods near a hunting cab bishop like the situation with matt. >> right and it was very concerning at first when we got here we were the first people here not new york state troopers or neighbors on the scene because a few minutes later we could see the activity and who ambulances coming down from the shooting and apprehension and arrest of this most wanted map david sweat happened. this were two plans but only one of them helped up leaving and heading to the hospital with a heave police guard. the other plan did not have the light on and did not go down that way. we are able to --. >> peter, we will let you go back and be a reporter and talk

to folks and see what happened and pack up the gear and get down the street as far as the authorities let you. >> thanks. >> and now former new york police detective joins us on the phone. pat, where they have been hiding in the woods and we talked about the cab bishop owned by a correctional officers where they were hiding out before matt was later caught and shot and sweat ran on foot. there are words of potentially police trying to get sweat at the time, too and missing him and hearing him running in the woods. what would lead the guy into a residential neighborhood. i don't get that. >> nothing less than terror, he was on the run. the gig was up. the boy was shot dead and he was running, it was two shots but he was absolutely running for his life and interestingly at that juncture once the state

police and the other authorities identified that he was there and on the run from that location, they had a nexus and the manhunt then is down to math at this point. there is an investigative machine humming along relentlessly the whole time and that machine is assessing the heeds, identifying statistical probabilities and evaluating intelligence and charting probable travel paths. with that information with that math with that science they are able to basically put him in a group a gee graph california grip and slowly town the screws. that is why as peter pointed out, one of the higher ups, obstensibly, identified this nexus point and the officer that shot him tied him to a logical intersection. the logical intersection point.

the end result of all of the math of it. it is just an astonishing astonishing case, such great police work, textbook police work. no one hurt but the bad guys, just -- what a great day. >> it is interesting when you talk about what a math and science it is. the distance between malone new york and where sweat was shot and capture in constable that is just six mile span, not very far. richard matt was shot and killed on friday. here we are two days later. sweat only made it six miles. what does it toll you that he made it such a short distance. the ultimate destination was the two day respond of his accompliceening shot and killed he only managed to travel six miles. what do you think happened in

the six miles? >> again it is impossible to speculate with any precision at this juncture but we know if there were circuitous routes high took. we. fine out though, but six miles seems like a very short distance to travel but i imagine he was hiding at every point and in terror of the 1,100 blood hours that were stalking him relentlessly like the "terminator." there would be no end. he learn add valuable less son that cop killers get special attention. a convicted cop killer gets the extra special attention that drives the point home. i am sure he was absolutely horrified when his boy was shot in the head and he could not

move too easy. pat brosnan, stand by, we continue with continuing coverage right here on fox. >> 5:00 p.m. in new york, a big win for law enforcement relief for the people of upstate new york as we have been reporting 35-year-old david sweat an inmate who escaped from the correctional facility is in custody and we are told he has been shot by new york state trooper as he walked down a potentially road in constable new york, which is only five miles from the new york-canadian border. we are told that he is in stable and not life threat being condition and right new at the medical center in nearby malone new york, that is where his accomplice richard matt, the fellow escapeee was shot and killed on friday. matt police say according to reports, was