According to police, about 500 officers were searching for the killer.
Bucktown, USA:
Schools outside Philadelphia were closed and residents had to lock their doors Tuesday after an escaped Brazilian killer dodged gunfire to steal a gun from a home and was declared “extremely dangerous.”
Danelo Cavalcante, who made a daring escape from the Chester County Jail nearly two weeks ago, has become the subject of fear and fascination for Americans as he evades police dogs, drones, helicopters and special armed units.
Authorities set up roadblocks in the wooded, rural area around Bucktown, Pennsylvania, where elite SWAT police and armored vehicles were also deployed.
Although police have failed to corner the convicted killer, the Brazilian national has repeatedly turned up on home security footage and even on wildlife cameras set up to monitor wildlife, turning his criminal exploits into a grim reality TV show.
Since climbing over his prison wall on August 31, the 34-year-old has been able to steal new clothes, food and a van, which he later abandoned, and managed to get a shave.
On Monday evening, he upped the stakes by breaking into a home garage near Bucktown and taking a .22 caliber rifle with a scope and flashlight attached to the weapon, Pennsylvania police spokesman George Bivens told a news conference.
The homeowner confronted the fugitive and opened fire with a handgun, but appeared to have missed the fugitive, who escaped.
Cavalcante’s prison escape came a week after he was sentenced to life in prison for killing his girlfriend in 2021 by stabbing her dozens of times in front of her children. He is also wanted for murder in Brazil, US police say.
Cavalcante’s mother, who lives in rural Brazil, told the New York Times in an interview that she was not surprised that he gave authorities a chance to elude authorities – just as he did in Brazil after he reportedly man had killed.
“His education was his suffering,” Iracema Cavalcante told the newspaper, recounting her son’s poor, rural upbringing.
She also despaired that he would have to spend a lifetime in prison in the United States, saying, “It is better to die quickly” than “to go to a place and suffer and die there.”
Cavalcante, just 5 feet 6 inches tall, is “considered armed and extremely dangerous,” Bivens said.
In addition to flooding the search zone — a large area west of Philadelphia — with messages warning residents, the decision was made early Tuesday to close schools in the Oakland J. Robert school district.
“We are not evacuating homes at this time. We ask residents to be vigilant and once again lock their doors,” Bivens said.
‘Needle in haystack’
The police spokesman said about 500 officers, including heavily armed tactical units, are combing the area, but are being hampered by the wooded terrain.
Bivens defended himself against criticism that the police were incompetent in the manhunt, calling Cavalcante the “proverbial needle in the haystack.”
Helicopters buzzed over an area that included Lundale Farm, about 40 miles outside of Philadelphia. Its executive director, Becki Patterson, said police were “walking through our property, walking through the woods.”
She said the area has “trees, creeks and bridges and all kinds of nooks (where) you can sneak around.”
“It was very stressful.”
Police have increased the reward for information on Cavalcante’s whereabouts from $20,000 to $25,000.
There have been several sightings of the convict so far, including some where he was shirtless, while others saw him wearing a hoodie.
Police say Cavalcante changed his appearance by shaving off the dark beard and mustache seen on his original “wanted” poster.
Police also said the escapee left behind a stolen white 2020 Ford Transit van, reportedly from a West Chester dairy. Apparently he was out of fuel.
Prison officials released a video last week showing how Cavalcante was able to escape.
It shows the convict, who is then wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, crab-walking along two parallel walls and then climbing to the roof before making his way over two barbed wire fences.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
