MALONE, N.Y. (AP) - The latest on the hunt for two inmates who escaped from a maximum-security prison (all times local):
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4:45 p.m.
One of two convicted killers who staged a brazen escape from an upstate New York maximum-security prison and had been hunted for three weeks has been shot and killed.
An official with knowledge of the manhunt says Richard Matt was killed and David Sweat is still on the run. The official wasn't authorized to talk about the development publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on Friday on the condition of anonymity.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo (KWOH'-moh) says Matt and Sweat used power tools to saw through a steel cell wall and several steel steam pipes, bashed a hole through a 2-foot-thick brick wall, squirmed through pipes and escaped early on June 6 from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, near the Canadian border.
Sweat was serving a sentence of life without parole in the killing of a sheriff's deputy in Broome County in 2002. Matt was serving 25 years to life for the killing and dismembering of his former boss.
A prison guard and a prison tailor shop instructor have been accused of helping the inmates escape.
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4:30 p.m.
Police searching for two escaped inmates are converging on an area near the Canadian border where officers had concentrated their search, but the reason isn't immediately clear.
There was no immediate word from state officials about the response Friday.
It comes as searchers on the trail of Richard Matt and David Sweat found new evidence left behind by the pair. The area police are converging on is south of Malone, about 30 miles west of Clinton Correctional Facility.
Hundreds of officers looking for Richard Matt and David Sweat shifted the focus of their search slightly northwest to woods and fields around Malone
The pair escaped June 6.
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1:20 p.m.
Authorities say more evidence left behind by two escaped New York prisoners has been found in an area near the Canadian border where more than 1,100 law enforcement officers are concentrating their search.
State police Maj. Charles Guess says the items were found Thursday at a cabin and Friday morning in a field, both in the town of Malone, 30 miles northeast of the maximum-security prison David Sweat and Richard Matt broke out of June 6. Guess says the items have been sent to a forensic lab for testing.
He isn't revealing details about the items but refers to them as "significant."
Other evidence was found last weekend in a hunting cabin in the neighboring town of Bellmont.
Guess says the search effort is moving north toward the Canadian border.
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9:45 a.m.
Police are again shifting the focus of their search for two convicted murderers who escaped from a maximum-security prison in northern New York three weeks ago.
Hundreds of law enforcement officers have spent most of the past week concentrating on a heavily wooded area 20 miles west of Clinton Correctional Facility, where David Sweat and Richard Matt broke out June 6. Authorities say DNA evidence confirmed the fugitives had been inside a hunting camp near the hamlet of Mountain View.
By Friday morning, fewer officers were around the hamlet while others were searching a few miles north in the town of Malone, near the Canadian border.
A small contingent of New York state troopers is stationed along power lines in the town, and motorists have to pass through a checkpoint.
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9:15 a.m.
New York state prison officials say the corrections officer charged after the escape of two convicted murderers has been suspended without pay.
Gene Palmer's suspension from his $72,644-a-year job comes after he was arrested Wednesday night on charges of promoting prison contraband, tampering with evidence and official misconduct.
Palmer has told investigators he provided paint, tools and prison catwalk access to Clinton Correctional Facility inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat, who escaped June 6. But the 57-year-old veteran guard says he had no idea they were planning to escape.
Before the charges came down, Palmer was suspended with pay from his job at the northern New York prison.
He is free on $25,000 bail.
