Danelo Cavalcante: Escaped Pennsylvania killer is spotted again and is now armed, police say

CNN
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The convicted killer who escaped from an eastern Pennsylvania prison nearly two weeks ago was spotted again Monday night and now has a weapon, police said, jolting the surrounding community into high alert.

Police are expected to provide an update on the search for 34-year-old Danelo Cavalcante around 9:30 Tuesday morning.

The latest sighting of Cavalcante – the first one reported since Saturday – brings a heightened sense of danger as the search enters its 13th day Tuesday.

Live updates: The latest on the manhunt

The fugitive was spotted in Chester County’s South Coventry Township, about 20 miles north of the county prison he escaped from, according to an emergency alert sent by Chester County officials Monday night to area residents via email and text message.

“Residents in the area are asked to lock all external doors and windows, secure vehicles, and remain indoors,” the alert read, adding that there were reports of the fugitive in the area of Ridge, Coventryville and Daisy Point roads, “possibly armed with a weapon.”

Pennsylvania State Police later said on Facebook around 1:38 a.m. ET they were “pursuing” Cavalcante in the South Coventry Township, and that he “is armed with a weapon.” The post did not say how authorities knew he was armed or what kind of weapon he had.

A man who fits Cavalcante’s description stole a gun before shots were fired during the Monday night sighting, sources told CNN affiliate KYW.

A resident reported a gun stolen during a confrontation, and it remains unclear if the man was hit when the homeowner fired shots, KYW reported. The weapon is a .22 caliber rifle, sources told KYW and CNN affiliate WPVI.

Chester County reported a shooting incident Monday night around 10:10 pm.

Shoes that are believed to belong to Cavalcante were also found overnight, WPVI reported.

Video from WPVI shows a massive police response in the South Coventry Township overnight, with dozens of patrol cars and an armored vehicle converging on the scene.

While few details about Monday night’s sighting were immediately released, it was the first time authorities said Cavalcante might be armed – though he has repeatedly been described as dangerous.

The search and police activity led to school closures.

Owen J. Roberts School District in Chester County announced it would be closed Tuesday, according to a statement on the district’s website. Neighboring Downingtown Area School District did not close Tuesday, but four of its schools will remain indoors, the district wrote in a Facebook post.

Further, the Pottstown District Court is closing Tuesday “due to police activity and road closures,” and the Pottstown School District is conducting classes and activities indoors.

The Unionville-Chadds Ford School District and Kennett Consolidated School District both closed for multiple days last week due to the search but are now open.

Cavalcante was being held at Chester County Prison, in a rural area some 30 miles west of Philadelphia, following his conviction last month of first-degree murder for the killing of his former girlfriend, 33-year-old Deborah Brandão.

He escaped from custody August 31 by putting his hands on a wall and his feet on another and “crab-walking” up to the roof, authorities said. He then pushed his way through razor wire, ran across a roof, scaled another fence, and got through more razor wire before escaping the compound, officials said.

Before Monday night, no sightings of Cavalcante had been reported since the weekend, when authorities say he slipped through a police search perimeter. Police say he stole a van, changed his appearance and showed up Saturday at the homes of people he knew years ago, more than 20 miles outside the search perimeter. He then ditched the vehicle in a field East Nantmeal Township and vanished, authorities said.

The weekend’s developments shifted the search for police, who had previously been focused on a search perimeter that included a botanical garden – just a few miles from the prison – where he was sighted multiple times.

Despite the shifting search areas, all reported sightings of Cavalcante so far have happened in Chester County.

On Saturday evening, Cavalcante appeared at the East Pikeland Township home of an acquaintance he’d known several years ago, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said in a Sunday news conference.

He spoke with the acquaintance on a Ring doorbell camera, which captured his new clean-shaven look, but the person wasn’t home and did not respond to meet Cavalcante, Bivens said.

Cavalcante then tried to contact another acquaintance in the nearby Phoenixville area. That person was also not home but called police after a female resident saw the escaped inmate, according to Bivens.

“He needs additional help. He needs resources for the long run, and he is seeking those,” Bivens said in a news conference Monday afternoon.

While Cavalcante has so far managed to evade the hundreds of officers looking for him, police have said they don’t believe he’ll be able to cross state lines.

“I don’t believe he has the resources to get out of Pennsylvania,” Bivens said.

Despite several sightings since his escape, police have said they’ve faced challenges as the unusually long search for Cavalcante dragged on – an effort one official has described as “tactical hide and seek.”

“We conduct fugitive investigations every day of the year across this commonwealth … most don’t lead to a protracted search like this,” Bivens said Monday.

Most escaped prisoners are captured within 24 hours, and most of them within two miles, CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller said.

According to Bivens, the challenges in finding Cavalcante include:

• The search beginning in a large, densely wooded area with many places to hide.

• It was difficult to secure a search perimeter, where Cavalcante was spotted several times, because it had a “massive” underground tunnel system, large drainage ditches and thick vegetation.

• Police didn’t get the calls from the acquaintance who Cavalcante tried to contact on Saturday until hours later.

“No perimeter is 100% secure. It’s not a wall, it doesn’t have a ceiling, it doesn’t have all of the things that you might normally use if you’re trying to contain someone,” Bivens said.

The Longwood Gardens area, where officers had earlier set up a perimeter, was a particular challenge, according to Bivens.

“We had tactical teams in there from multiple agencies and even then, it was problematic to try and capture him or to find him again,” Bivens said. “The cover is that dense and just a multitude of places to hide.”

Aerial video from September 8 showed officers on horseback in Kennett Square searching in grass so long and dense, it consumed the horses’ legs.

The early stages of the search in the woods played out to Cavalcante’s advantage, US Marshals Service Supervising Deputy Robert Clark said Monday.

“He was in an 8-square-mile area with very difficult train that was very difficult to get to,” Clark said.

But in an urban setting, the advantage is on law enforcement’s side, Clark said.

“He was playing that tactical hide and seek in the woods. Now, I believe it’s advantaged law enforcement because he’s in an urban setting and that’s what our investigators do,” Clark said Monday.

In addition to the murder of Brandão – he stabbed her 38 times in front of her two young children, according to prosecutors – Cavalcante also is wanted in a 2017 homicide case in Brazil, his native country, a US Marshals Service official has said.

Pennsylvania State Police have said multiple credible sightings of the escaped inmate have been reported. Here’s what we know about some of the places police say Cavalcante has been to:

• August 31: Cavalcante is seen on jail surveillance video escaping from Chester County Prison. The video showed him “crab-walking” between two walls in an exercise yard – placing his hands on one wall and his feet on another – and shimmying up out of view, said the prison’s acting warden, Howard Holland. Cavalcante then ran across a roof, scaled another fence and got through razor wire, Holland said.

• September 1: Ryan Drummond, who lives in the township where the prison is located, said Cavalcante got into his Pocopson Township home and took food before leaving, CNN affiliate WPVI reported.

• September 2: Cavalcante was spotted on surveillance video about 1.5 miles from the prison, authorities said.

• September 4: A security camera recorded the fugitive at Longwood Gardens, about 3 miles from the prison, authorities said.

• September 5: An area resident reported seeing Cavalcante in a creek bed on the resident’s property, Bivens said.

• Wednesday: A trail camera image showed Cavalcante in or around Longwood Gardens, but officials learned about this sighting Thursday evening, according to Bivens.

• Friday: Authorities reported two sightings of Cavalcante within the search area. The area encompassed Longwood Gardens.

•Saturday: Cavalcante stole the van and at 9:52 p.m. local time, he went to the home of the first acquaintance where he was seen on doorbell video. He then went to the home of another old work associate at 10:07 p.m. in Phoenixville area, according to Bivens, who said authorities learned of the sightings around 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

• Sunday: The stolen van was found abandoned in a field behind a barn in East Nantmeal Township at 10:40 a.m.

• Monday: Police send an alert saying Cavalcante was sighted in Chester County’s South Coventry Township, “possibly armed with a weapon.”