Associated Press
DANNEMORA, N.Y. — Two convicted murderers escaped from a maximum-security prison near the Canadian border in upstate New York, authorities said Saturday.
Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, are dangerous and should not be approached, New York state police warned.
Sweat is serving a sentence of life without parole after he was convicted of first-degree murder for killing a Broome County sheriff’s deputy in 2002. Matt is serving a sentence of 25 years to life for kidnapping a man and beating him to death in 1997.
The two men were unaccounted for during morning bed check at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, state police said.
The prison is about 20 miles from the Canadian border. Roadblocks were set up in the area, WIRY-AM reported.
Sweat is a 5-foot-11 white male with brown hair and green eyes, weighing 165 pounds, police said. He has tattoos on his left bicep and his right fingers.
Matt is a 6-foot white male with black hair and hazel eyes, according to police. He weighs 210 pounds and has tattoos including “Mexico Forever” on his back, a heart on his chest and left shoulder and a Marine Corps insignia on his right shoulder.
A spokesman for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Cuomo planned to visit the prison and hold a news conference there later Saturday.
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