Pennsylvania fugitive Danelo Cavalcante captured, ending two-week manhunt
A convicted murderer who escaped from a Pennsylvania jail was captured on Wednesday with the help of a heat-sensing aircraft and a police dog, ending an intense, two-week manhunt that unnerved residents in the Philadelphia suburbs, authorities said.
Tactical teams surrounded the fugitive, Danelo Cavalcante, at around 8 a.m. in a rural area about 30 miles (50 km) west of Philadelphia. As he tried to crawl away, a police dog subdued him and he was forcibly taken into custody, Pennsylvania State Police Lieutenant Colonel George Bivens said.
Cavalcante was sleeping when police found him, lying on top of a rifle he had stolen from a nearby resident late Monday night. Officers took Cavalcante by surprise, and he tried to flee by crawling through thick underbrush with the rifle in hand, Bivens said. A police dog was released and bit him, preventing him from using the rifle, and police then took him into custody.
Bivens described Cavalcante as “defiant and still resisting arrest” and noted that the dog left him with a scalp wound.
“When the dog got to him, he then went flat with the dog on him – the dog was able to detain him there,” Bivens said. “I was told the rifle was within arm’s length.”