[imagesource:x/@mmmmmmandi]

A murderer who escaped from a Pennsylvania jail on August 31 has been captured by police, bringing an end to an intense two-week public manhunt.

Danelo Souza Cavalcante, 34, managed to escape the institution last month by crab-walking up between two walls topped with razor wire and then jumping from the prison’s roof.

Cavalcante was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, in front of her children in 2021. The killer is also is a suspect in Brazil for a “double qualified homicide” related to the 2017 murder of Valter Junior Moreira dos Reis. Bizarrely, the latter crime is believed to have been committed over a vehicle-repair debt.

The mass search for Cavalcante began when a burglar alarm was triggered shortly after midnight on Tuesday, believed to be set off by the murderer.

The alarm attracted nearby search teams, including a plane provided by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) equipped with thermal imaging technology.

Then around 1 AM on Wednesday, the DEA plane’s thermal imaging camera detected a heat signal. Ground teams began to track and encircle the area where the signal was located, forming a tight perimeter.

Later in the morning, a US Customs and Border Patrol team moved in on Cavalcante in a wooded area about a kilometre away from where the alarm was triggered.

Realising he was being pursued, Cavalcante attempted to escape by crawling through heavy underbrush with a stolen rifle in hand. It’s at this point that a hero search dog named Yoda entered the scene, in order to subdue Cavalcante in preparation for his arrest.

The dog found and latched on to the killer, resulting in a struggle that left Cavalcante with a bleeding scalp wound. Partly due to the clever doggo officer, Cavalcante was taken into custody without any shots being fired.

Moments after the arrest was officially made, approximately two dozen police officers in tactical gear stood with Cavalcante, yelling in jubilation and posing for a selfie. The celebration was captured on videos shared to social media, and has spurred heated debate as to whether it was ‘appropriate’ to do so in the way they did.

While I’m inclined to let the officers have their moment after such a gruelling chase to get a killer off the streets, policing experts have deemed the celebratory moment as ‘dehumanising’.

The 14-day manhunt for escaped convicted killer Danelo Cavalcante has come to an end Wednesday. Cavalcante, who escaped from the Chester County Prison on August 31, is finally in custody.

But first… let me take a 🤳 something is up with this pic.twitter.com/8V7lgcetpu

— Shannon Crawford (@shae33172) September 14, 2023

Despite the controversy surrounding the footage, authorities are proud to have successfully apprehended the fugitive, ensuring his return to custody to face the charges against him. Let’s make sure he doesn’t sneak out again this time, shall we?

And someone please get that legendary pooch a doggy biscuit.

[source:aljazeera]