America
“Dangerous” fugitive still eluding police
Thirteen days after escaping from a US prison, Danelo Cavalconte remains on the run from the police, despite considerable resistance.
Published
Police have set up barricades at many places to control the movement of vehicles.
AFP
Schools near Philadelphia in the US northeast were closed again on Tuesday, and residents were asked to stay home by police. ”.
In the latest episode of the manhunt that has increasingly embarrassed authorities, 34-year-old Danelo Cavalconte broke into an apartment in South Coventry, about 50 km northwest of Philadelphia, on Monday evening and seized a 22-caliber rifle from the garage, Lt. Col. George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police announced Tuesday morning. According to the police officer, when the fugitive fled, the owner shot him without injuring him.
Schools were closed
Sentenced to life in prison in mid-August for the stabbing death of his ex-girlfriend, “Cavalconte is considered armed and very dangerous,” he warned, noting the gun was equipped with “telescopes and a flashlight.”
Residents in this large, rural and wooded suburb of Philadelphia have been told to lock their doors to their homes and vehicles and “stay inside” as the hunt intensifies. Like last week, many local schools are closed Tuesday.
An AFP photographer noted that police had set up several roadblocks and were controlling the coming and going of vehicles. Armored vehicles and police quick response teams (SWAT) were deployed.
“mental stress”
“We have helicopters flying over our farm, a lot of police forces. “It’s really a manhunt, where (police officers) are walking through the property, through the woods,” Peggy Patterson, manager of a nearby farm, Lundele Farm, told AFP by phone.
The farm is over 220 hectares, and there are “trees, streams, bridges, all kinds of corners to squeeze into. So it’s very stressful,” he adds, judging that “the police do an incredible job” in the difficult terrain. Almost two weeks after the Brazilian criminal escaped, time is running out for police who have deployed hundreds of agents on the ground backed by helicopters, drones and search dogs.
Danelo Cavalconte was seen several times on video surveillance cameras, but each time managed to escape the search perimeter set up by the Pennsylvania police, backed by the FBI and US marshals, who specialize in tracking down fugitives.
Needed in Brazil
On Sunday, new photos were released showing the fugitive appears to be clean-shaven from the night before, possibly changing his appearance after the wanted notice was issued where he had a black beard. Danelo Cavalconte also stole an abandoned white van on Sunday, possibly because he ran out of gas.
According to police, he sought help from two acquaintances, who notified authorities. His sister, who was in the US illegally, was arrested. The Brazilian, who is about 1.52 m and weighs 54 kg, according to a wanted poster, managed to escape from the Chester County Jail on August 31.
The video, which was recorded on a prison camera and released by the authorities, caused embarrassment to the prison authorities. In the extract, we see the prisoner, wearing a white t-shirt, blue pants and white sneakers, hiding in a recess of the gym, then climbing up, Spider-Man-style, his body horizontally between two walls, hiding on the ceiling. .
An inmate was sentenced to life in prison on August 22 for stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death in front of the child victim during an argument in April 2021. According to police, he is also wanted for a murder in Brazil. That is why he left his native country, first to Puerto Rico, where he obtained false documents, and then to the northeastern part of the United States, according to the “Philadelphia Inquirer” newspaper, which followed his investigation.
(AFP)
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