The Brazilian killer who escaped from a prison in Pennsylvania (USA) at the end of last month is behind bars again. He now faces new charges after evading US authorities for two weeks. The hunt attracted international attention and left the local community apprehensive.
Police captured Danilo Cavalcante, 34, in the woods of South Coventry Township, in the state of Pennsylvania, on Wednesday morning (13), when a police dog played a key role in the arrest.
The then-fugitive planned to leave the country, according to Robert Clark, supervisory deputy U.S. marshal for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
“His goal was to steal a car and head north to Canada. He intended to do it within the next 24 hours,” Clark told Erin Burnett of CNN, on Wednesday (13).
Clark, who did not speak to Cavalcante after his capture, cited what the deputies told him after the interrogation the prisoner underwent after his arrest.
“He said the police presence where she was was huge, so he felt he needed to leave,” Clark said.
Cavalcante is now being held in Pennsylvania’s maximum security prison, the State Correctional Institution – Phoenix, in Montgomery County, where he will serve a life sentence for murder.
He is now also charged with felony escape and is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 27, according to court records.
No attorney was listed in Cavalcante’s court documents and the public defender’s office has declined to comment on the case at this time. Pennsylvania authorities updated the spelling of Cavalcante’s first name to Danilo in court documents. Before, it was Danelo.
Understand the case
The inmate — who was convicted last month of first-degree murder in the death of his ex-girlfriend and sentenced to life in prison — escaped from the Chester County Jail in a rural area about 30 miles west of Philadelphia on 31 of August.
He managed to evade authorities for 14 days, traveling through forested areas, moving at night and, for the first few days, surviving on water from a stream and a watermelon he found on a farm, authorities said.
During his time on the run, Cavalcante escaped the search perimeter, was caught inside homes, stole a dairy van, changed his appearance, showed up at the door of people he met years ago, stole a firearm and was shot by the owner of a house he tried to break into.
During his search, hundreds of agents searched for him through challenging, heavily wooded terrain.
“A couple of times he came close to fooling us,” said Chester County Chief Detective David Sassa. “He told us that at times the tactical teams passed by him. The terrain was so dense that the officers who were just five feet away couldn’t see him,” Sassa said.
The detective also said that Danilo is ingenious. “He did the things he knew he could do. He wanted to take shelter in the forest,” he added. “He did things that he was comfortable with, he moved around at night, he told our investigators that at some points he stayed still for a day, a day and a half.”
When he was captured in South Coventry Township — about 20 miles from the prison he escaped from — Cavalcante had the appearance of someone who had been in the woods for a long period of time and seemed stressed, Bivens said.
“That’s exactly what we were trying to do all along,” Bivens said. “The goal was to keep him stressed, moving and out of the game.”
The prison
More than 20 police officers in tactical gear and camouflage uniforms took Cavalcante into custody on Wednesday, escorting him to an armored vehicle. He was handcuffed with blood on his face and was wearing a Philadelphia Eagles sweatshirt.
About 500 law enforcement officers — including members of the Pennsylvania State Police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI and U.S. Marshals — set up a perimeter in South Coventry Township this week to search for Cavalcante from the ground. and the air.
Cavalcante answered investigators’ questions after his capture without hesitation, Clark said.
Cavalcante told investigators that the police officers looking for him almost stepped on him three times – or came within a few meters of him – while he hid in the forest.
The rifle that Cavalcante took from an open garage on Monday night increased the feeling of danger to the search and the surrounding community.
“This person had great capabilities that perhaps a municipal prison is not always prepared for. But now we know we need to be prepared for these things,” said Josh Maxwell, chairman of the Chester County Board of Corrections.
Another inmate escaped from the Chester County Jail in May by climbing to the roof, just as Cavalcante did, according to court documents obtained by CNN . That inmate, Igor Bolte, was captured in a nearby residential neighborhood just minutes after the escape.
“Our nightmare is finally over,” Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan said Wednesday morning.
Ryan said one of the first calls he made after Cavalcante’s capture was to the family of the woman he killed, 33-year-old Deborah Brandão. Prosecutors say Cavalcante stabbed Brandão 38 times in front of his two young children in Pennsylvania in April 2021.
Sassa said he was one of the detectives who responded to the scene of that “horrible” murder.
“I was at that trial. I watched him, he showed no emotion. He didn’t apologize… To see, a week later, him escape the way he did was shocking to me,” Sassa said.
Brandão’s family had been “barricaded inside their homes, not feeling safe anywhere” since their escape, Ryan said.
“They were screaming with joy and happiness that he was incarcerated,” Ryan said. “They lived their own personal nightmare.”
Brandão’s sister, Sarah Brandão, said in a statement after Cavalcante’s capture that her family is “deeply grateful for the support and hard work done” by authorities.
The escape and the days that followed evoked the feeling of losing her sister again, Sarah said.
“The last two weeks have been extremely painful and terrifying as they have brought back all the feelings of losing my sister and the idea that this criminal could hurt us again,” reads the statement, translated into English.
See also: US police arrest Brazilian after 14 days on the run
Source: CNN Brasil
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