2023-09-09 07:00:00
A video released this Wednesday by the police shows how a dangerous murderer climbed “walking like a crab” two walls separated by a 1.5 meter corridor to escape from a prison in Pennsylvania, in the United States.
Danelo Cavalcante, 34, has been on the run since August 31, when he fled the Chester County Jail.
His escape route involved scaling the same walls that another inmate had scaled earlier this year to escape.
Authorities say barbed wire was installed after the first escape, but it was clearly ineffective.
The acting warden of Chester County Jail said at a news conference that the correctional facility had hired security consultants after the May 19 escape of Igor Bolte, who told police he had relied on their climbing knowledge. on rock to escape.
Consultants had “identified an insufficiency”, acting warden Howard Holland said, and barbed wire was installed to prevent other inmates from using the same exit route.
“While we believed our security methods were sufficient, we have proven otherwise. And now we will act quickly to improve our security measures,” Holland said.
Cavalcante was sentenced to life in prison last month after being found guilty of brutally stabbing his ex-girlfriend Deborah Brandao to death in April 2021 in front of her two young children.
His escape last week made headlines in his native Brazil, where he is wanted for another murder in 2017.
The video shows how he “crab-walked up a wall, through barbed wire,” Holland said, placing his hands on one wall and his feet on the other to work his way up.
After reaching the roof, both inmates were able to climb down a ladder to a lower security part of the prison.
“The human element”
When asked how it was possible for an escape to happen again so soon after the previous one, Holland responded: “We thought we had made adequate efforts to prevent it with the barbed wire.”
But while the prison focused on physical barriers, the acting warden said they had not addressed “the human element.”
In May, an officer saw Igor Bolte escape on video monitors, and the inmate was captured five minutes later. At the time of Cavalcante’s escape, shortly before 09:00 local time (13:00 GMT), a prison official was in the observation tower but was unable to locate him.
That officer has been placed on administrative leave and is under investigation by the state attorney general.
Investigators leading the search said Wednesday that they have expanded their search perimeter amid several sweeps in recent days.
Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens told reporters that Cavalcante “may be having trouble navigating” through densely forested terrain and could be hiding in sheds or other buildings.
On Monday, authorities began using helicopters and patrol cars to amplify an audio message recorded by Cavalcante’s mother in Brazil asking him to surrender.
Authorities are offering a reward of US$20,000 for information leading to his capture.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: IMPORTING DATE: 2023-09-07 18:30:06
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