Escaped murderer Richard Matt refused to be taken alive — and died in a hail of gunfire near the Canadian bord🥀er on Friday in a bಞloody last stand with officers who had been hunting him for three weeks.
He was caught because he fired a bullet at one point that struck a camper in a possible att𒀰empt to make it stop so he could hijack it.
The driver alerted cops who rushed to the scene.
Then, State Police caught aꦦ whiff of gunpowder in a nearby cabin, prompting a Customs and Border Pat💞rol tactical team to fly into the area.
“T𒐪here was indication that someone had recently been there and had fled out the back door⛎,” State Police Superintendent Joseph D’Amico said.
The federal agents finally closed in🅰 on Matt, 49, in a heavily wooded area near Lake Titus in the tiny town of Malone. The officers heard coughing “so they knew they were dealing with humans, as opposed to wildlife,” D’Amico added.
As they confronted Matt, he gripped a shotgun, according to a law-enfor♕cement source.
“They verbally challenged him, told him to put up hi🐻s hands, and he was shot when he didn’t comply,” D’Ami꧟co said.
They recovered the 20-gauge shotgun, he added.
Fellow fugitive David Sweat — a convicted cop killer — remained ෴a🎉t large Friday night and was being tracked by police dogs.
“We have no reason to believe that Mr. Sweat was not with Mr. Matt at the time [he🅺 was shot], but we don’t have any confirming evidence that he was there either,” Gov. Cuomo told a press conference Friday night.
“We don’t have anything to confirm where Mr. Sweat is 🐭at this time.”
He ꦿwarned that “these are dangerous, da𓃲ngerous men.”
Matt’s death came nearly three weeks after the convicts busted out of Clinton Correctional Facility on June 6 in an elaborate escape allegedly facili💮tated by prison workers.
The🥃 manhunt for Matt and Sweat, 35, involved more thanᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ 1,100 law-enforcement officials, whose big break came at about 2 p.m. when the driver of the camper called.
“Originally they had heard a sound,” D’Amico said. “They thought mayb💖e they had a flat.
“When they pulled ☂into a campsite, they r𒊎ealized there was a bullet hole through the back of the camper.
“We believe that the gun was stolen by the convicts from a hunti𝐆ng cabin in Mountain View” where🐼 they had holed up soon after busting out, the source added.
Bob Willett, who owns an auto-repair♓ shop in Malone, also called🍨 police after noticing a bottle of cheap gin had been opened in his son’s cabin in Malone.
“It wasn’t much, but something was out of place,” he said. “The b♎ottle is always on theܫ counter and it was on another counter and the cap was off and it was spilt.”
Matt met his end less than 20 miles away from theꩵ border and roughly 50 miles west of the Dannemora prison — on Route 30, near Route 41.
By Friday evening, authorities had formed a perimeter and were following Sweat’s scent with a team of dogs through thic🔯k woodl꧒and around Lake Titus, but he wasn’t within sight.
They had found two sets ꦛof footprints in the woods, including one that they believed belonged to Sweat, the sources said.
Devin Murtagh, 20, said he🌼r mom lives only a couple of miles away from where Matt was caught, and remained on edge knowing that Sweat was still on the lo♒ose.
“It’s a re♒sidential area,” Murtagh said. “[My mother’s] freaking out right now. She’s in the house and really nervous.”
State Police co𓆉nsidered both Matt and Sweat armed and “very dangerous” ever since the raid on the Mountain View cabin, where an “inordinate amount of weapons” was stored, Sta♒te Police Major Chuck Guess said.
A trail camera in Whippleville also snap🎶ped a photo of the esꦯcaped convicts earlier this week, showing Matt toting a shotgun, law-enforcement officials
The cameras caught them because hunters had been asked by cops to turn them on early, several months before the start of the deer-hunting season on
Oct. 1.
Searchers zeroed in on the area around Malone Thursday nig♏ht, after 💜linking Matt’s DNA to a second cabin that had been broken into in the area.
Police had also found e♏vidence th﷽ey had stayed at an outdoor site nearby.
🐻“We discovered through search teams a camp where maybe somebody had laid down and w♛e found candy wrappers and some other things that were left behind that were all searched,” D’Amico said.
The fugitives poached some “basic items” from the sites and left otherꦕsꦺ behind, Guess said at a press conference Friday.
Officials believed the duo had been heaꦫding north-northwest in an🎶 attempt to make a break for Canada, so authorities formed a “picket line” to ensure they couldn’t make it across, Guess added.
The intensive search 💯began nearly three weeks ago when Matt and Sweat executed an ingenious escape from New York’s largest pri🍌son.
During the “Shawshan𝔍k Redemption”-style breakout, the inmates, who were in adjoining cells, managed to cut their way out of their c♎ells, then walked along a 6-foot-tall catwalk to cut their way into pipes and tunnels that led outside.
They eventually climbed oꦇut of a manhole beyond the walls of the prison.
The convicted criminals had help from prison worker Joyce “Tillie” Mitchell, who all💛eged✅ly had sex with both men behind bars.
She hooked up with cop kill🥃er Sweat🏅 at least 100 times in a sewing-shop storage close🍌t where they were both assigned, said a former prisoner.
Mitc🍨hell smugg๊led Matt and Sweat tools in frozen hamburger meat, which she allegedly asked guard Gene Palmer to deliver to the inmates in the prison’s “honor block.”
Matt gave Palmer some of his artwork and intel on bad inmates in exchange for his help. Palmer allegedly let the convicts tin♔ker with an electrical box behind their cells, allowing them to access the catwalks they later used to make their escape.
Mitchell and Palmer have bot🃏h been arrested. Palmer💮 insists he never knew he was sneaking tools to the inmates when he delivered the meat.
Palmer is charged with promoting prison contraband and tampering with evidence for burning the pꦓaintings at his house.
Mitchell is cha🎀rged with criminal facilitation and promoting prison contraband.
Additional reporting by Kevin Fasick and Dana Sauchelli in Malone, NY