Escaped killer Danelo Souza Cavalcante stole a gun from a garage and fled a homeowner’s gunfire, authorities said Tuesday as police closed roads in a Philadelphia suburb, ordering residents to lock their doors and create a new to set up a search area during the almost two-week manhunt.
Cavalcante entered the open garage late Monday in the search area northwest of Philadelphia, stole a .22-caliber rifle and ammunition, and fled when the homeowner who was in the garage pulled a gun and shot him several times. Colonel George Bivens said this at a press conference on Tuesday morning.
The developments came in the days after Cavalcante slipped out of an earlier search area in southern Chester County, stole a dairy truck and went to the homes of former colleagues in what police say is Cavalcante’s desperate search for help.
About 500 law enforcement personnel are now searching or monitoring an area of 8 to 10 square miles in another part of Chester County, near South Coventry Township, about 30 miles northwest (50 kilometers) of Philadelphia, Bivens said. More officers are being called in to secure the area, with police closing roads and setting up checkpoints to search vehicles.
Bivens said he has no reason to believe Cavalcante was injured when the homeowner shot him.
Before that encounter, Bivens said a motorist alerted police to a man matching Cavalcante’s description crouched along a tree line in the darkness near a road. Police found footprints and followed them to prison shoes that were identical to the shoes Cavalcante was wearing. A pair of work boots were stolen from a nearby porch.
Bivens said he believes Cavalcante was running from pursuers and looking for a place to hide when he saw the open garage.
“The garage door was open. I don’t think he noticed the owner was in there. And I think he was probably looking for a place to hide, ran to that garage, saw the firearm, grabbed it, ran into the homeowner and fled with the firearm,” Bivens said.
It was, he said, a “crime of opportunity.”
A $25,000 reward is being offered for information leading to his arrest.
At least one school district said Tuesday it would close all schools and offices for the day, and another school district in the area planned to keep students indoors. Police have closed roads in the search area. Video footage from a roadblock showed law enforcement officers stopping and checking vehicles leaving the area.
Bivens has said state police have the authority to use deadly force if Cavalcante does not actively surrender, and noted that other agencies involved in the search may have their own rules.
On Saturday, Cavalcante slipped out of a previous 8-square-mile search area this weekend and stole a dairy van that had been left unlocked with the keys inside. He left the search area more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) north after unsuccessfully seeking help at the homes of two former colleagues late Saturday, police said.
Bivens declined to say how he thinks Cavalcante slipped through the search perimeter, but he said no perimeter is completely secure.
State and federal officials pushed back Monday on questions about whether they had missed an opportunity to capture Cavalcante, saying the area where hundreds of people had searched included deep woods, underground tunnels and drainage ditches. They also said it took more than two hours for news to reach them that he had first been spotted outside the perimeter.
Bivens declined to discuss whether Cavalcante received assistance from others, but said no such arrests have been made.
Cavalcante’s sister was arrested by immigration authorities, Bivens said. He said she was arrested for overstaying her legal limit and that police had no reason to allow her to remain in the United States since she was not cooperating with the investigation.
Cavalcante, 34, escaped from Chester County Prison while awaiting transfer to a state prison to serve a life sentence for fatally stabbing an ex-girlfriend in 2021. Prosecutors say he killed her to prevent she would tell the police that he was wanted in a prison. murdered in his home country Brazil.
To escape, Cavalcante climbed a wall by climbing up from the recreation area with crabs, climbing over barbed wire, running across a roof and jumping to the ground. His escape went unnoticed for more than an hour until the guards took a head count. The tower keeper on duty was fired, officials said.
In Brazil, prosecutors in the state of Tocantins said Cavalcante is charged with “doubly qualified murder” in the 2017 killing of Válter Júnior Moreira dos Reis in the municipality of Figueiropolis, over a debt the victim owed him for repairing a vehicle.
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Brumfield reported from Silver Spring, Maryland. Associated Press writers Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia and Eléonore Hughes in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report.