The two-week search for a convicted murderer who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison ended Wednesday after Danelo Cavalcante was captured, officials said. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Lt. Col. George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police confirmed at a news conference that Cavalcante was apprehended just after 8 a.m., by members of a tactical team leading the manhunt. No shots were fired.
Cavalcante was arrested in a wooded area inside the perimeter set up by law enforcement, a law enforcement source told CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton early Wednesday, noting that he was arrested without incident.
Images from CBS Philadelphia’s chopper showed a crew of officers in camouflage escorting Cavalcante. The escaped prisoner appeared to be wearing a Philadelphia Eagles sweatshirt in the footage. It was taken after tactical teams converged on an area near their search perimeter in northern West Chester County, where an aircraft had picked up a heat signal overnight, Bivens said.
A “burglar alarm” sounded around midnight at a residence within the perimeter, according to police. Officers did not find Cavalcante, or anyone else, at the residence when they investigated the alarm, but the heat signal eventually leading to his capture was detected in that area after 1 a.m. At that point, the aircraft began to track it. However, lightning storms moving through the region prevented the craft from continuing its flight and tactical team members instead formed a new perimeter around the spot where the heat signal had shown up. The manhunt resumed Wednesday morning.
“They were able to move in very quietly they had the element of surprise,” Bivens said.
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Cavalcante tried to escape by crawling “through thick underbrush,” Bivens continued, “taking his rifle with him when he went.” He said Cavalcante was subdued by a police dog and “forcibly taken into custody” after resisting officers as they attempted to arrest him. Cavalcante sustained “a minor bite wound,” according to Bivens, but there were no other injuries. The escapee was transported to a police station in Avondale for questioning before being booked into SCI Phoenix, a state maximum-security prison in Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County on Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections said.
“It is a true pleasure to stand here this morning and talk to you all about bringing this manhunt to successful conclusion, and without getting anyone else hurt, most importantly,” Bivens said Wednesday. Shapiro also addressed community members at the morning news conference, recognizing that “this has been a concerning and trying time for each and every one of you in the region.”
“We obviously became deeply concerned after the suspect was able to steal a weapon,” the governor said. “He was apprehended this morning with no shots fired.”
Authorities said Tuesday Cavalcante stole a rifle from a Chester County garage and evaded shots fired by the homeowner as he fled the scene. Cavalcante, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2021, escaped from Chester County Prison in West Chester at around 8:45 a.m. on Aug. 31.
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Chester County Prison’s acting warden Howard Holland said that Cavalcante escaped from the exercise yard by climbing up a wall to the roof area, which is the same escape route that another inmate, Igor Bolte, used in May. Surveillance footage from the prison grounds, which authorities released about a week into their search, showed Cavalcante hoisting himself up from the ground by balancing between a fence and a brick wall, and using a crab-walk to climb upward until he disappeared from the camera’s view. His escape is under investigation by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.
“I think there are questions that Chester County officials are going to have to answer as to how this suspect was able to escape, particularly given the history at that jail,” said Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.He also echoed previous comments from Pennsylvania State Police, warning that anyone who may have assisted Cavalcante while he was on the run would face prosecution. Bivens had said earlier in the search that whether the escapee had help was unknown.
The prison has taken steps to increase security since Cavalcante escaped, Chester County Commissioners’ Office spokesperson Rebecca Brain said in a statement obtained by CBS News after his capture.
“Chester County Prison officials have made some immediate changes to bolster security in the prison, have brought in security contractors to make permanent changes to the exercise yards, and are reviewing and —where needed — changing procedures for both security measures and communication to residents who live close to the prison,” Brain said in the statement.
A 34-year-old Brazilian national, Cavalcante was convicted last month of first-degree murder and sentenced to serve life in prison without parole for killing his former girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, in April 2021. He allegedly stabbed her to death, and the woman’s young children witnessed the crime, CBS Philadelphia reported at the time, citing police. Cavalcante is also wanted in connection with a homicide in Brazil, according to the U.S. Marshal Service, and he was repeatedly described as “extremely dangerous” by law enforcement throughout the manhunt involving hundreds of local, state and federal officers.
Cavalcante was seen multiple times in and around Chester County during the extended police search that led to school closures in the area and a temporary order to shelter in place. Initially, law enforcement focused the manhunt in the area surrounding Longwood Gardens, which is densely wooded and situated on top of a network of underground tunnels.
Search efforts escalated considerably this week. On Monday night, a man believed to be Cavalcante was spotted by a driver along the side of a road near Route 100, but had already vanished when the driver returned to check the roadside before they reported the sighting. Mud prints matching the soles of Cavalcante’s prison shoes were located and tracked to the shoes themselves, which Cavalcante had discarded. Around the same time, a resident in the area reported that a pair of work boots had been stolen from the porch outside their home.
Later the same night, a Chester County homeowner on Coventryville Road reported that a man had entered his garage and stolen a .22 caliber rifle that was leaning against one of the walls. The homeowner drew a pistol and shot at the man, believed to be Cavalcante, as he fled the property with the gun. When law enforcement responded to the scene, they found a green sweatshirt and a white t-shirt in the driveway.
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They believed both clothing items belonged to Cavalcante, since he had been seen wearing a green hooded sweatshirt in doorbell surveillance footage over the weekend. That video came from a Ring camera at the home of one of Cavalcante’s former work associates, who he attempted to contact Saturday night after leaving Longwood Gardens in a stolen van, authorities said. Images from the surveillance tape were widely circulated.
While the holiday spirit will dominate the news agenda, there are notable developments to watch across the world, as the three defining themes of 2024 — elections, war and inflation — continue to hum in the background.
On Tuesday, Moldova’s pro-EU president-elect Maia Sandu will attend her inauguration. Her narrow election victory in October, despite alleged Russian meddling in the process, will set the former Soviet country on a path to EU membership.
Georgia, on the other hand, will on Sunday swear in Mikheil Kavelashvili to the presidency, a pro-Russian firebrand and Croatia will hold a first-round presidential vote on Sunday.
On Monday, Mozambique’s top court is set to give a verdict on the country’s disputed election in October, while Albanian opposition parties block roads demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama’s resignation
Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda will deliver a speech on Christmas Day. Economists will pore over his words for clues on how president-elect Donald Trump’s tariffs will affect the pace and trajectory of monetary policy.
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UK third-quarter GDP figures will be out on Monday, after months of disappointing economic releases for chancellor Rachel Reeves.
A Guatemala migrant has been arrested for allegedly setting a woman on fire and burned to death on a subway train in Brooklyn, New York, early Sunday morning. The incident occurred at the Stillwell Avenue Subway station in Coney Island around 7:30 a.m.
The suspect, identified as 33-year-old Sebastin Zapeta, is believed to have entered the US from Guatemala approximately a year ago. It remains unclear whether he entered the country legally or illegally.
During a press conference Sunday evening, New York Police Department (NYPD) officials, including Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, explained, “As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the victim. The female victim was in a seated position.”
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“The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds.”
Officers on patrol at the station were alerted to the situation by the smell and sight of smoke. While responding at the scene, they discovered a person inside the train car fully engulfed in flames. The fire was extinguished with assistance from an MTA employee using a fire extinguisher. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
Elon Musk and Mayor Eric Adams condemns subway attack
Zapeta remained at the scene after the incident. He was found seated on a bench outside the train car. Body-worn cameras worn by responding officers captured clear footage of the suspect. Tisch noted, “Body-worn cameras on the responding officers produced a clear and detailed look at the killer.”
Following the release of the suspect’s description and photographs to the public, three high school students recognized the man and called 911. Transit officers confirmed the description and located the suspect on a moving train. The train was stopped at the next station, where officers boarded, identified the man, and arrested him without further incident.
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams expressed his condolences to the victim’s family, calling the attack a “senseless killing.”
“Grateful to the young New Yorkers and transit officers who stepped up to help our NYPD make a quick arrest following this morning’s heinous and deadly subway attack. This type of depraved behaviour has no place in our subways, and we are committed to working hard to ensure there is swift justice for all victims of violent crime.”
Tesla boss Elon Musk also took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his frustration. “Enough is enough,” he posted, along with the Guatemala migrant’s subway CCTV shot.
Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
Donald Trump has tapped Stephen Miran, an economist who served during his first term, to chair his Council of Economic Advisers.
With the nomination, the president-elect is seeking to elevate to a White House economic post not only a critic of Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell but one who has accused the Biden administration of manipulating the economy and “usurping” the central bank’s role.
“Steve will work with the rest of my Economic Team to deliver a Great Economic Boom that lifts up all Americans,” Trump said in a statement on Sunday.
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Miran was a senior adviser for economic policy at the Treasury department in the first Trump administration.
Currently a senior strategist at hedge fund Hudson Bay Capital Management, he said he was honoured. “I look forward to working to help implement the President’s policy agenda to create a booming, noninflationary economy that brings prosperity to all Americans!” he posted on X.
The White House Council of Economic Advisers is a three-person group that advises the president on economic policy.
Trump has threatened US trading partners, vowing to impose sweeping tariffs, including 25 per cent levies on goods from Mexico and Canada and 10 per cent on China’s imports, on his first day in office.
On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to impose blanket levies of 20 per cent on all US imports, as well as tariffs of 60 per cent on those from China, suggesting his second-term policies could be more protectionist and disruptive to the global economy and markets than his first.
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The president-elect has also pledged to renew tax cuts he enacted during his first spell in the White House.
Earlier this year, Miran co-wrote a paper accusing Biden’s Treasury department of manipulating the economy during the election, arguing the government’s dependence on short-term debt amounted to “stealth quantitative easing and impedes the Fed’s ability to fight inflation.
“By adjusting the maturity profile of its debt issuance, Treasury is dynamically managing financial conditions and, through them, the economy, usurping core functions of the Federal Reserve”, he wrote with economist Nouriel Roubini.
“We dub this novel tool ‘activist Treasury issuance,’ or ATI. By manipulating the amount of interest-rate risk owned by investors, ATI works through the same channels as the Fed’s quantitative easing programs.”
In FT Alphaville last year, Miran co-authored a piece warning against the perils of a two-tier bond market, which “would impair Treasuries’ ability to serve as risk-free collateral underpinning the global financial system” and bring to the US the chaos of a defaulting emerging economy.
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Miran has also hit out at Powell for urging more aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus in October 2020, about a month before that year’s election, to aid the economic recovery amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Powell was wrong politically and economically when he urged Congress to ‘go big’ on fiscal stimulus in October of 2020, on the eve of a Presidential election, suggesting that voters favour Democrats’ $3 trillion proposals over Republicans’ $500 billion”, Miran wrote on X in September. “We know what happened next.”
Miran must be confirmed by the US Senate.
Last month, Trump named Kevin Hassett as chair of the National Economic Council.