Prison guard who missed killer’s escape is fired, as hunt for fugitive focuses on botanic backyard

WEST CHESTER, Pa. — A jail tower guard has been fired after a assassin slipped away on his watch in a brazen daytime escape, officers stated Friday, because the nine-day-old search pressed on amid southeastern Philadelphia suburbs, farmland and an unlimited botanical backyard.

News of the firing got here because the searchers’ ranks grew in a single day, specializing in the world round Longwood Gardens, the place the fugitive inmate has been noticed earlier than.

Danelo Souza Cavalcante, 34, escaped whereas awaiting switch to state jail on Aug. 31 after being sentenced to life in jail for fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend in 2021. Prosecutors say he needed to cease her from telling police that he’s needed over a killing in his residence nation of Brazil.

Authorities have described Cavalcante as extraordinarily harmful. With the search in its second week, nervous residents stay alert for any signal of him. Police consider Cavalcante has been noticed 9 occasions since his escape, most lately on Thursday evening, and has managed to get ahold of clothes and different provides.

The Chester County Prison county guard was fired Thursday after 18 years as a corrections officer, county spokesperson Michelle Bjork stated. He was on responsibility within the watchtower when Cavalcante scaled a wall by crab-walking up from the recreation yard, climbed over razor wire, ran throughout a roof and jumped to the bottom.

Cavalcante’s escape went undetected for greater than an hour till guards took a headcount. The guard, who was placed on administrative depart after the escape, additionally had his private cellphone on him on the time, a violation of jail protocol, Bjork stated.

The spokesperson stated she didn’t know the precise motive for the firing and couldn’t give any extra particulars about what the guard was doing when Cavalcante escaped.

County officers have stated the watchtower guard ought to have seen Cavalcante attempting to flee, however apparently didn’t, they usually haven’t defined why he didn’t see or cease Cavalcante, together with whether or not he was on his cellphone and distracted.

Cavalcante has eluded a whole bunch of regulation enforcement personnel, together with monitoring canine, tactical groups in full fight gear, and police on horseback and in helicopters southwest of Philadelphia.

On Friday, the ranks of searchers swelled to its largest quantity but at round 400 personnel, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens informed reporters at a command submit.

Longwood Gardens was closed indefinitely after studies that Cavalcante might have as soon as once more been noticed on the property. People who remained there in a single day Thursday had been informed to shelter in place as officers searched a part of the backyard.

The botanical backyard, sprawling throughout almost 200 acres (80 hectares), is often open to the general public with paths winding via gardens, an out of doors theater, ponds, fountains and meadows, with buildings together with indoor gardens, treehouses and a restaurant.

There was a potential sighting of Cavalcante on Thursday evening that was being investigated, state police stated, however additional particulars weren’t disclosed. It got here hours after one other individual reported seeing Cavalcante in one other space of the huge botanical backyard. On Monday evening, a surveillance digicam on a path had captured him strolling via its grounds.

There’s now a $20,000 reward for data resulting in his seize.

The escape and search have attracted worldwide consideration and have become massive information in Brazil. The predominant newspaper in Rio de Janeiro ran a prolonged story Wednesday with the headline “Dangerous hide-and-seek.”