Danelo Cavalcante planned carjacking to flee to Canada before capture - latest updates

Just hours after his arrest, Cavalcante was hit with new charges stemming from his jailbreak. He is already serving life in prison for the April 2021 brutal murder of his former ex-girlfriend Deborah Brandao, 33.

Now, Brazilian prosecutors are also preparing to pursue a trial against Cavalcante in connection with a 2017 murder that the murder convict is accused of.

Here’s what comes next for Cavalcante:

A group photo of about two dozen law officers in tactical gear posing with escaped murderer Danelo Cavalcante minutes after his capture Wednesday in southeastern Pennsylvania drew criticism from policing reform advocates and some members of the public.

The moment of the photo was captured by a KYW-TV television news helicopter. It showed the officers and federal agents gathered in a half circle around the handcuffed escapee for a photo before loading him into an armoured vehicle.

Policing experts said the celebratory moment after the gruelling 14-day search for the armed suspect was inappropriate and dehumanizing. But at least one leader of the operation said he wasn’t bothered by it.

When asked about the criticism at a news conference Wednesday, Pennsylvania State Police Lt Col George Bivens focused on the officer’s hard work under trying circumstances.

“They’re proud of their work,” Bivens said. “I’m not bothered at all by the fact that they took a photograph with him in custody.”

Policing experts said the practice of snapping photos, especially after a successful arrest, is not uncommon but has become more prevalent with the advent of smart phones. While many law enforcement agencies have tried to create conduct guidelines for social media use including barring posts to personal pages while wearing a uniform or from conducting on-duty activities, experts say those rules do not exist everywhere and are inconsistent.

“There’s not standards or uniformity in those policies. What we have here is a galvanizing act that might start a debate,” Adam Scott Wandt, an associate professor of public policy at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told The Associated Press.

“From a policing ethics point of view, a police officer taking a picture on the street and putting it on social media or doing it as a celebratory or retaliatory thing is not OK,” Wandt said. “As an attorney, it is an evidentiary problem being created here too. It’s a dangerous practice for a police officer to create evidence on a scene and not properly turn it over to the prosecutor.”

AP

Escaped prisoner Danelo Cavalcante has revealed how he survived almost two weeks on the run from law enforcement, following his dramatic capture by a police dog called Yoda.

US Marshall Robert Clark told NewsNation that the convicted killer “was brutally honest” after he was captured on Wednesday morning.

He told investigators how he evaded capture by hiding his faecal matter under leaves so that search teams couldn’t track him.

“He did say on three occasions law enforcement officers did almost step on him. They were about seven to eight yards away from him,” said Mr Clark.

Pennsylvania state police pose for a group victory photo with Danelo Cavalcante at the forefront, after they caught the escaped killer on Wednesday.

A large group of police officers, all dressed in military camouflage uniforms, gathered around the escaped killer after an exhausting two-week manhunt.

In the video, you can see one military personnel hand his phone over to another officer, before all gathering around for a photo with the fugitive. Some officers posed by crouching on the floor, one kneeling with his gun in hand next to Mr Cavalcante. Another officer made sure his police K-9 was in the shot.

A nearly two-week manhunt for dangerous murder convict Danelo Cavalcante came to an end on Wednesday as he was captured in Pennsylvania.

The fugitive was found hiding under logs inside a shed at a business dealership in Pottstown with the rifle he had previously stolen from a home in South Coventry Township. Aerial footage of the capture showed dozens of Border Patrol tactical unit officers surrounding Cavalcante, who was wearing a grey Eagles hooded sweatshirt and dark pants.

Officers then cleaned Cavalcante’s bloodied face and escorted him out of the woods and into a SWAT tactical car, where they proceeded to cut off Cavalcante’s clothing.

On Tuesday night, a burglar alarm went off at a residence within the search perimeter. Deputies responded to the scene but did not immediately locate Cavalcante.

Then at 1am on Wednesday, thermal imaging from a DEA aircraft picked up a signal and officials deployed ground forces. The aircraft had been flying over the perimeter for several days but had not successfully picked up a signal because of high temperatures.

Lightening and extreme weather in the early morning hours of Wednesday complicated the operation but law enforcement secured the perimeter and resumed efforts this morning.

As law enforcement closed in on Cavalcante, a K-9 unit was released to immobilise the fugitive. Lt Col George Bivens said that Cavalcante continued to resist and “crawl away” even after he was surrounded by officers.

Mr Bivens said that Cavalcante was taken by surprise and did not have a chance to use the rifle he had stolen. Cavalcante sustained a minor bite wound from the K-9 during the ordeal.

Law enforcement found Cavalcante hiding in a shed in Pottstown on Wednesday

Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan said one of the first calls made following Cavalcante’s escape was to the family of his murder victim Deborah Brandao.

The fugitive was transported to the Avondale barracks, where he is being processed. He will eventually be taken to a state correctional facility to serve a life sentence for Brandao’s killing.

“Our nightmare is finally over and the good guys won,” Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan said. “We never lost faith that this capture would take place and knew it was just a matter of time.”

For 14 days, Cavalcante managed to elude hundreds of law enforcement officers, including tactical teams in full combat gear, tracking dogs, cops on horseback and on aircraft.

Pennsylvania State Police Lt Col George Bivens had credited Cavalcante’s upbringing in rural Brazil for his ability to hide in the vast wooded terrains in Chester County.

The jailbreak on 31 August sparked fear among residents of the county’s suburbs, who were urged to keep their homes secure following a series of break-ins believed to be linked to Cavalcante.

On 11 September, fears reached a fever pitch as Cavalcante stole a gun from a garage.

Cavalcante managed to get ahold of clothing, food, and even stole a van that he used to drive more than 25 miles from his original hiding spot in Longwood Gardens.

He was spotted multiple times throughout the 14-day ordeal and the sightings repeatedly forced law enforcement to expand their search perimeter and prompted three school districts and a popular botanical garden to close.

The moment of the photo was captured by a KYW-TV television news helicopter. It showed the officers and federal agents gathered in a half circle around the handcuffed escapee for a photo before loading him into an armoured vehicle.

Policing experts said the celebratory moment after the gruelling 14-day search for the armed suspect was inappropriate and dehumanizing. But at least one leader of the operation said he wasn’t bothered by it.

When asked about the criticism at a news conference Wednesday, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens focused on the officer’s hard work under trying circumstances.

“They’re proud of their work,” Bivens said. “I’m not bothered at all by the fact that they took a photograph with him in custody.”

Policing experts said the practice of snapping photos, especially after a successful arrest, is not uncommon but has become more prevalent with the advent of smart phones. While many law enforcement agencies have tried to create conduct guidelines for social media use including barring posts to personal pages while wearing a uniform or from conducting on-duty activities, experts say those rules do not exist everywhere and are inconsistent.

“There’s not standards or uniformity in those policies. What we have here is a galvanizing act that might start a debate,” said Adam Scott Wandt, an associate professor of public policy at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

“From a policing ethics point of view, a police officer taking a picture on the street and putting it on social media or doing it as a celebratory or retaliatory thing is not OK,” Wandt said. “As an attorney, it is an evidentiary problem being created here too. It’s a dangerous practice for a police officer to create evidence on a scene and not properly turn it over to the prosecutor.”

AP