A K-9 officer from Detroit is credited with successfully capturing escaped murderer Danelo Souza Cavalcante after a two-week-long manhunt in southern Pennsylvania.
Yoda is a 4-year-old male Belgian Malinois with the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tactical Unit based in Detroit, CBP spokesman Stephen Sapp told The Detroit News in a statement.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection provided support to federal, state, and local law enforcement during an intense 14-day search for Cavalcante. His heat signal was picked up around 1 a.m. Wednesday from an aircraft, but storms prevented teams from continuing to track him until the morning. In the meantime, tactical teams secured the area, and later moved in with search dogs, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said at a news conference.
By 8 a.m., a K-9 officer Yoda found Cavalcante hiding in a woodland area of Chester County and “surprised him,” Bivens said. Yoda bit Cavalcante on the scalp and he suffered a minor wound and was taken into custody. No shots were fired, he said.
Cavalcante escaped from the Chester County jail in southeastern Pennsylvania on Aug. 31 by crab-walking up between two walls that were topped with razor wire, then jumping from the roof and dashing away. He had been awaiting transfer to state prison after being sentenced days earlier for fatally stabbing his girlfriend and is wanted in connection with another killing in Brazil.
The end to the search for Cavalcante, 34, unfolded just beyond Philadelphia’s heavily populated suburbs. Police brought in hundreds of heavily armed law enforcement personnel with dogs, armored carriers, horses, and helicopters that circled overhead, according to the Associated Press.
Other Border Patrol Tactical Units from Buffalo, Detroit, Blaine, Washington and Vermont aided in the search.
No further details could be provided on Yoda.
Source : Detroit News
