prison where he i skescaped. he was walking down a road this afternoon. broad daylight when he was stopped. he fled across a field. and he was shot twice. but he was taken into custody alive. alexandra field joins me live in constable, new york. what are the authorities on the ground there saying? reporter: well, they re still at the field, poppy. they re bringing in forensic investigators. they have got to do the processing of that field before they can clear out of here. we are seeing a resounding sigh of relief. they had 1,300 law enforcement officers who were involved in this. they had, you know, more than 2,000 tips that were called in leading to various leads which set law enforcement officers on the trail of both richard matt and david sweat. but in the end, this was the new york state police s investigation and it was a new york state sergeant who laid eyes on david sweat in a field just about two miles down the road from where i m standing. we are told by law enforcement
anything. then he saw an ambulance come and an ambulance leave. that is how quickly it went down and that is how, really oblivious some of the people around here were because it all happened so quickly and it all happened really without much of a chase and without much of a fight, based on what we ve heard. something else that we heard the details about from the new york state police officials and from the governor. even though david sweat was not armed, he was shot by that sergeant because he was about to make it to a treeline. there are a lot of open spaces here that are paved roads and many houses and families that live around here but the trees are really thick. so when they talk about how they felt like they needed this sergeant felt like he needed to shoot to take down the fugitive david sweat so that he didn t make it to the treeline that s because if he made it there, and this sergeant was by himself, there is a solid possibility that sweat would have disappeared again up her
part of that treeline that officers were so afraid he was able to jump into and get lost. and what truly speaks to just how unexpected so many of the turns have been, poppy, we have seen 11, nearly 1,200 police officers saturate this area and yet a lone police sergeant on patrol sergeant jay cook was the one that ended what was just so much pain, so much agony and concern for just so many people so you may imagine really whatnot only what it means for the people that kept their doors locked, children inside and family of deputy kevin tarcia. shot and killed in 2002 by david sweat. early on in this thing, three weeks ago, an opportunity to speak to supervisors say that this escape basically tore open a wound that took years to heal. knowing that this very dangerous cop killer was on the run. so if anybody wanted to see david sweat back behind bars, it
single state trooper on a roving patrol who saw someone, followed his insint and shot him. it went down like that. the two together. david sweat facing off with each other there. so under the radar that the person who lived next door didn t even know it was going on at the time. it is extraordinary. certainly a hero tonight. sergeant jay cook with the new york state police there. thank you very much. looking at all of this, it is an extraordinary fete this happened. you brought up an issue, did they have a map? how did they navigate so well in. that is interesting and one of the things law enforcement welcome looking at. you have hunting cabins and many know the terrain in the area. you have to wonder if there was some book, map, anything that may have suggested to these two where they were going to go. this really came tumbling down,
news as i m smur you ve heard already. . mr. sweat is in custody, he s in stable condition, and let s give a big round of applause to the men and women of law ve done a great job. it has been a long long time. we will go into greater detail. mr. sweat was spotted by a new york state police sergeant sergeant jay cook. he was approached this afternoon. the sergeant recognized mr. sweat, obviously, from his