Schools near Philadelphia are closed again Tuesday, September 12 and residents asked to stay home by the police, on the 13th day of hunting for a "dangerous" criminal escaped from prison, now "armed".
The latest episode in this manhunt, increasingly embarrassing for authorities, Danelo Cavalcante, 34, broke into a property in South Coventry, about 50 km northwest of Philadelphia, Monday night and seized a rifle "22 long rifle that was in the garage," announced Tuesday morning Lieutenant Colonel George Bivens, of the Pennsylvania State Police. According to the police officer, the owner shot the fugitive, without injuring him, as he managed to escape.
Sentenced in mid-August to life in prison for stabbing to death his former girlfriend, "Cavalcante is considered armed and extremely dangerous," he warned, adding that the rifle was equipped with "a scope and a lamp".
'Manhunt'
As the hunt intensifies, residents have again been asked to close the doors of their homes and vehicles, and "stay inside" their homes, in this large suburb of Philadelphia, rural and wooded. Like last week, several local schools are closed on Tuesday.
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Our farm is overflown by helicopters, and there are a lot of police forces. It's really a manhunt, there are (police) walking through the property, through the woods," Becki Patterson, manager of Lundale Farm, a nearby farm, told AFP by telephone. The farm covers more than 220 hectares, and "there are trees, streams, bridges, all kinds of corners to sneak into. So it's really stressful," she adds, judging that the "police are doing an incredible job" on difficult terrain.
Nearly two weeks after the escape of the Brazilian criminal, the time is getting longer and longer for the police, who have positioned hundreds of agents on the ground, supported by helicopters, drones and search dogs. Cavalcante was spotted several times on video surveillance cameras, but each time he was able to escape from the search perimeters set up by the Pennsylvania police, supported by the FBI and US Marshals, specialized in tracking fugitives.
Wanted in Brazil
On Sunday, new photos were released, dating back to the previous night, where the fugitive appears clean-shaven, presumably to change his appearance after the release of a wanted notice where he wore a black beard. Cavalcante had also managed to steal a white van, found abandoned Sunday, probably because it ran out of gas. According to police, he sought help from two acquaintances, who alerted the authorities. His sister, who is in the United States illegally, was arrested.
The Brazilian, a small man of about 1.52 m and 54 kg according to a wanted notice, managed to escape on August 31 from the Chester County Jail, forty minutes drive south of the current search area. The escape, of which a video recorded by a prison camera was released by the authorities, is as spectacular as it is embarrassing for prison officials. On the extract, we see the prisoner, white T-shirt, blue pants and white sneakers, hiding in a recess of the courtyard, then climbing nimbly, like spider-man, the body horizontally between two walls, and disappearing on the roof.
The detainee was sentenced on August 22 to life in prison for stabbing his former girlfriend to death, in front of the victim's child, during an argument in April 2021. According to police, he is also wanted for a murder committed in Brazil, which is why he fled his native country, first to Puerto Rico, where he obtained false documents, then to the northeast of the United States, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, which followed his trial.