Fugitive David Sweat Captured; Police Sergeant Praised for Single Handed Capture
CUOMO: The flames are out. Everybody is OK. You know what James does?</s>CAMEROTA: What?</s>CUOMO: He doesn't stay around for any kudos. He got a job.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just went back to work and finished up what we had to do.</s>CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. What a sweet guy and a hero. It's a great story.</s>CUOMO: And you guys have that bond.</s>CAMEROTA: We do. We love trees. Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello. Good morning, Carol.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I guess I love trees, too.</s>CAMEROTA: Why not?</s>COSTELLO: Thanks to both of you guys. Yes. Have a great day. Thanks so much. NEWSROOM starts now.</s>COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM. We got them.</s>GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: The nightmare is finally over.</s>COSTELLO: A three-week manhunt for two killer fugitives is over. One dead, the other hospitalized.</s>MAJ. CHARLES GUESS, NEW YORK STATE POLICE: Sweat turned and fled on foot with the sergeant in pursuit.</s>COSTELLO: How a hero sergeant ended the hunt. And what we could learn from the surviving escapee. Also, banks shuttered. ATM's out of cash. What a debt crisis in Greece means for all of Europe and your retirement account. Plus --</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The peanuts. The cheapest one is what it costs to do it.</s>COSTELLO: The cost of a presidential run? Pocket change to Donald Trump. But it will cost him.</s>TRUMP: I'm giving up a prime time television show.</s>COSTELLO: Why he's spiking in the polls and selling out events. Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.</s>COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. This morning in northern New York countless residents are waking up from probably their best night's sleep in three weeks. The manhunt for those two escaped killers over. 23 days after breaking out of prison David Sweat is hospitalized in critical condition this morning. He was shot twice while running from a state police sergeant and nearly disappearing into thick woods. More importantly, Sweat was just two miles from the Canadian border. Even his own mother voiced relief that he was finally captured.</s>PAMELA SWEAT, DAVID SWEAT'S MOTHER: Just a sigh of relief. And we started crying because he wasn't killed.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Were you ever afraid that he was going to try to come down to this area while he was on the run?</s>SWEAT: Oh, no. My son knows that if he would have came here, I would have knocked him out and had them guys take him to the jail by themselves.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Have you been watching the media coverage? Have you been watching the news outlet?</s>SWEAT: No. I don't want to. I didn't want to know what's the matter with my son.</s>COSTELLO: Sweat's capture comes just two days after fellow escapee Richard Matt was spotted by police and shot to death. They say Matt was armed with a shotgun. We're covering all the angles. Let's begin with CNN's Sara Ganim. She's outside Albany Medical Center where Sweat is being treated. Good morning.</s>SARA GANIM, CNN INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes, he's in critical but stable condition, that's what the governor of New York is telling CNN. And state police telling CNN that he has begun to talk a little bit. Of course, he's still recovering after being shot twice in the torso. There are trauma doctors, vascular surgeons working to help him recover of course. Police want to know from him, one of the two men who escaped, how they pulled off such a brazen escape and whether or not there were any other people helping them.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this time his condition is listed as critical.</s>GANIM (voice-over): This morning convicted killer David Sweat is in custody and fighting for his life. Suffering from two gunshot wounds to his torso. Cheers from spectators as the escapee's ambulance arrives late Sunday at the hospital in Albany, New York.</s>ANDREW WYLIE, CLINTON COUNTY, NEW YORK DISTRICT ATTORNEY: His privileges will be extremely limited. He will be basically in 24/7 lockdown for the rest of his life.</s>GANIM: This exclusive photo obtained by CNN moments after his captures shows Sweat bloodied and in full camouflage garb. You can see in this photo a wound to his chest.</s>MICHAEL DOYLE, RESIDENT OF CONSTABLE, NEW YORK: I heard shots and I ran out with my phone. All of a sudden the cops just swarmed like bees.</s>GANIM: Sweat was spotted Sunday afternoon by New York State Police Sergeant Jay Cook during a routine patrol less than two miles from the Canadian border.</s>CUOMO: He was alone when this happened. I said, you go home tonight and tell your daughters that you're a hero.</s>GANIM: The fugitive was jogging along the road when Cook spotted him. That's when Sweat took off nearly making it back into the woods before Sergeant Cook opened fire.</s>JOSEPH A. D'AMICO, SUPERINTENDENT, NEW YORK STATE POLICE: The terrain is so dense you can't see five feet in front of you. If Sweat made the tree line and you know would have been gone.</s>GANIM: Investigators say Sweat and his now deceased partner-in-crime Richard Matt used pepper to try to throw off police tracking dogs.</s>D'AMICO: We did have difficulty tracking so, you know, it was fairly effective in that respect.</s>GANIM: The dramatic capture coming 48 hours after Matt armed with a shotgun was killed in a shootout with police.</s>CUOMO: It was an extraordinary circumstance, and the first escape in over 100 years, but one escape is one escape too many.</s>GANIM: Now, Carol, David Sweat was unarmed when he was captured. And to give you some perspective, he was about 16 miles away from where Richard Matt was shot and killed on Friday afternoon. He was about two miles south of the Canadian border. Officials worry that that was where he was heading. Now over the last three weeks, 1300 law enforcement officials were involved in this search, but at the end of it, it all came down to one New York State police sergeant who was on a routine patrol, who was able to chase after him and capture him. Last week when I talked to the Franklin County -- the Franklin County sheriff, he told me, he said, you know, we have helicopters, we have tracking dogs, but at the end of the day it's going to come down to good police work and that's what happened -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Absolutely. Sara Ganim reporting live for us this morning. And we cannot go on until we honor Sergeant Jay Cook. He's the hero cop who alone took down David Sweat before he disappeared into the woods. Here he is, a 21-year veteran, Sergeant Cook spent most of his career in Malone, New York. He spotted Sweat jogging along the road less than two miles from the Canadian border. Sergeant Cook called out to Sweat. The fugitive ran, Cook got out of his patrol car and gave chase, and then he opened fire. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.</s>CUOMO: I said to Sergeant Cook, who has two daughters, 16 and 17, I said, well, you go home tonight and tell your daughters that you're a hero, with teenage girls, that will probably last a good 24 hours, and then you'll just go back to being a regular dad.</s>COSTELLO: Sergeant Cook's mother told the "Press Republican" newspaper, quote, "He's not used to being shoved into the spotlight like this. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time. He's very sharp. It's just so surreal that this happened but we are extremely proud of him," end quote. Of course a whole community is relieved this morning. Audra Buchanan lives in Constable. She's been living on pins and needles until she saw those emergency vehicles speed by her house yesterday. Good morning, Audra.</s>AUDRA BUCHANAN, RESIDENT OF CONSTABLE, NEW YORK: Good morning.</s>COSTELLO: Thank you so much for being with me this morning. Your thoughts on Sergeant Cook?</s>BUCHANAN: Oh, I am so grateful. What a great shot he had. I mean, what a great place to be. The right place at the right time. I'm so thankful that he was there. Especially just a mile down from my house and protecting everyone in our community. I'm so thankful he was able to react in such a quick time.</s>COSTELLO: I can't even imagine. You've been living almost under lockdown, haven't you?</s>BUCHANAN: Pretty much for the last three weeks. Since these guys have gotten out of jail, we've been pretty much making sure we lock the house down, lock the car down, and make sure that the girls can't even go outside to play without us being there, watching every movement she makes. It just seems to be so surreal. Usually we let her go outside to play. But for the last three weeks it's been like you've got to be careful, you've got to stay in the yard, stay in sight so we can make sure everything is OK. Yes, it's just -- it's just so scary.</s>COSTELLO: Oh, it took authorities, what, 23 days to find these guys? Were you sort of losing hope that they'd never catch these men?</s>BUCHANAN: I'm sorry?</s>COSTELLO: Were you losing hope that they would catch these men since they managed to remain free for such a long period of time?</s>BUCHANAN: Not at all. I knew for a fact as many law enforcement as we had out there, they were going to be vigilant. They were going to stick to it day and night until they actually captured them. And I had no doubt. They did a wonderful job. They were just -- as far as I'm concerned, they're the best there is.</s>COSTELLO: I'd have to agree with you. Audra Buchanan, thank you so much for joining me this morning. Right now David Sweat is fighting for his life at the Albany Medical Center in New York. His condition listed as critical. This morning doctors are doing everything they can to keep him alive.</s>GUESS: I'm told he's talking a bit. Obviously he's in the care of medical professionals, and their priority is to save his life. We hope that he continues to talk. Our investigators are very keenly interested in what he might have to say. Not only as it pertains to his escape and the Department of Corrections, of course, would follow up on that. But from my perspective, how he managed to elude capture for the last 23 days.</s>COSTELLO: So now that fellow inmate Richard Matt is dead, Sweat, who is being guarded, is even more critical to the investigation. So let's bring in forensic scientist and CNN commentator Lawrence Kobilinsky. I'm also joined by retired chief deputy for the U.S. Marshals Service, Matthew Fogg. Thanks to both of you for being here this morning. I appreciate it. Matthew, I want to start with you. So, Mr. Sweat is now in the hospital. Is he chained to the bed? Like what's it like inside his hospital room?</s>MATTHEW FOGG, RETIRED CHIEF DEPUTY, U.S. MARSHALS SERVICE: Well, they're clearly going to have security. I don't know if he's necessarily chained to the bed according to his condition, but definitely security will be in that room watching every move that's being made. So he's very well secured, you can believe that.</s>COSTELLO: Lawrence, do you think Mr. Sweat is really fighting for his life?</s>LAWRENCE KOBILINSKY, FORENSIC SCIENTIST: Well, I think wounds to the torso can be extremely serious. Clearly there was no major artery that was severed. Had that happened, he would have bled out immediately.</s>FOGG: Right.</s>KOBILINSKY: But could suffer from a collapsed lung. There could be other organ damage. It's really hard to say, but, yes, he's fighting for his life. No question about that.</s>COSTELLO: And Matthew, supposedly he is talking a little. Will police question him? Are they questioning him now, do you think? Are they waiting?</s>FOGG: Well, it's a good sign that he's table and I'm sure maybe some questions are going in and out again. I'm not there, but if the medical people feel that he's able to answer questions, they will probably allow the authorities to ask, you know, certain questions and get certain things, you know. They want to know certain information right away like if there's been anybody else that's been harmed or hurt. Anybody in -- somebody he's done anything like that, so I'm sure those are the type of emergency type questions that they're asking right now.</s>COSTELLO: And, Lawrence, a couple of interesting things have come to light. Supposedly these two men were using pepper to throw off the scent. So supposedly tracking dogs can't pick up the scent if you put pepper in your wake?</s>KOBILINSKY: Well, it's extraordinary because in experimentation pepper has not been known to be extremely effective, but it would seem to me -- remember that these dogs have billions of receptors in their noses, and they're very, very sensitive. And pepper is going to irritate their eyes, their throats, certainly their noses, and it will throw a dog off the scent. Now the dog can recover and just travel around that area, but, you know, if the pepper is used extensively it can create a problem. And apparently it has. We were all shocked that it took this long to capture Mr. Sweat.</s>COSTELLO: Absolutely. And, Matthew, something else that -- of course we saw David Sweat was wearing a camouflage outfit. Certainly he didn't leave prison with those clothes on. Right?</s>FOGG: That's right.</s>COSTELLO: And he also had Pop Tarts in his backpack or something like that. What do you make of it all?</s>FOGG: That's right. I mean, I think he -- you know, again, you've got a lot of cabins up there. A lot of people leave guns and things like that in those cabins. So I think he could have probably got that equipment, that stuff from probably somewhere. But then again, we're trying to find out if there were in fact somebody that helped them on the outside or left something for them on the outside. So it's a lot unanswered questions but yes, he could have gotten that from one of the cabins up there if they broke in one.</s>COSTELLO: All right. Lawrence Kobilinsky, Matthew Fogg. Thanks to both of you. I appreciate it. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, world markets tanking as the Greek financial crisis deepens. If you think this won't impact you, well, we explain why you should be watching this very closely.