(CNN) ”” Escaped Pennsylvania inmate Danelo Cavalcante is in custody, Pennsylvania State Police announced Wednesday morning, ending a two-week-long manhunt for the convicted killer that drew hundreds of law enforcement officials to the area and left the surrounding community gripped with fear.
The dramatic encounter with Cavalcante, involving a helicopter, a lightning storm, a police dog and more than 20 tactical officers, led to his capture around 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, authorities said.
“Our nightmare is finally over,” Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan declared Wednesday morning.
Video from CNN affiliate KYW shows Cavalcante in handcuffs, being escorted into the back of an armored Special Response Team vehicle, flanked by more than a dozen law enforcement officials, most carrying rifles. Cavalcante was wearing dark pants and a Philadelphia Eagles hoodie; officers eventually cut his shirt with scissors and examined the tattoo on his back.
Around 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, a helicopter flying above the search area picked up on a heat signal on the ground, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said in a news conference. As a storm rolled in and lightning forced the helicopter out, a tactical team of 20 to 25 officers secured the area and waited out the storm until morning.
Cavalcante was sleeping when police found him, lying on top of his rifle. As officers took Cavalcante by surprise, he tried to flee by crawling through thick underbrush with the rifle in hand, Bivens said. A police dog was released and bit him ”” bringing to a sudden end a dramatic and dangerous manhunt that covered a broad swath of Chester County and kept numerous communities on edge.
Bivens said the police dog played an important role in preventing Cavalcante, who he described as “defiant and still resisting arrest,” from using the rifle he had with him. He noted that Cavalcante”™s struggle with the dog left him with a scalp wound.
“When the dog got to him, he then went flat with the dog on him ”“ the dog was able to detain him there,” Bivens said. “I was told the rifle was within arm”™s length.”
No one else was injured during the capture, Bivens said.
“It brought a new level of danger for all of our people out here in the field when we knew he obtained a firearm,” Bivens said. “For me, the biggest sense of relief is no one in the community was harmed and no law enforcement officer was harmed either.”
Cavalcante will be with state police “for a while,” and will be “medically assessed,” a state police spokesperson said. He will then be transferred to a state correctional institute, where he will serve his life sentence, Bivens said.
Bivens said Cavalcante had the appearance of someone who was in the woods for an extended period of time ”“ that he was stressed.
“Which is exactly what we were trying to do all along,” he said. “The whole point was to keep him stressed, keep him moving, and keep him off his game.”
“There were people who were intent and intended to assist him,” Bivens said. “To the best of my knowledge, we have been successful in preventing that assistance from reaching him.”
Bivens confirmed Cavalcante”™s sister, Eleni Cavalcante, was one of the people who intended to assist him, though the district attorney said Eleni did not communicate with her brother during the manhunt. Eleni, who was previously arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is now in the process of being deported after failing to cooperate with the investigation, Bivens said.
A town in terror
“This is a message from Pennsylvania State Police. The search for Danelo Cavalcante is over. The subject is now in custody,” said a Reverse 911 call sent to area residents Wednesday morning.
The call came just one day after police sent a similar one, warning that Cavalcante had acquired a weapon, bringing a heightened sense of danger to the already tense search.
Schools were closed and residents in the area were advised to lock their doors and cars, as police closed in on South Coventry Township in Chester County, about 20 miles north of the prison he escaped from.
Cavalcante, 34, escaped from Chester County Prison, in a rural area some 30 miles west of Philadelphia on August 31, by “crab-walking” up to the roof in an inmate exercise area. He was convicted last month of first-degree murder for the killing of his former girlfriend, 33-year-old Deborah Brandão.
According to prosecutors, Cavalcante stabbed Brandão 38 times in front of her two young children in Pennsylvania in April 2021. He was arrested several hours later in Virginia, and authorities said he was attempting to flee to Mexico and intended to later head to Brazil, his native country.
Cavalcante is also wanted in a 2017 homicide case in Brazil, a US Marshals Service official said.
The prison escape upended lives in South Coventry Township, which has a population of just over 2,600.
During his two weeks on the run, Cavalcante was spotted inside homes, managed to slip through police search perimeters, stole a van, changed his appearance, showed up at the doorsteps of people he knew years ago and stole a firearm.
Cavalcante turned up shirtless at a homeowner”™s garage Monday night, ran in and grabbed a .22-caliber rifle, Bivens said in a Tuesday news conference.
“We consider him desperate. We consider him dangerous,” he said. “I would suspect that he”™s desperate enough to use that weapon.”
Catherine Evans, who lives near the area where Cavalcante was captured, had been working from home with the doors locked, keeping close watch of her surroundings from a window overlooking her backyard.
“I am in shock that he was this close,” Evans told CNN after Cavalcante”™s capture was announced.
“I”™m very relieved to get back to normal. The normal grind that I don”™t look forward to, I am very much looking forward to it,” she added.
About 500 law enforcement officers ”“ including members of the Pennsylvania State Police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI and US Marshals ”“ had set up a perimeter in the wooded area.
Pennsylvania state Sen. Katie Muth thanked law enforcement for their work in capturing Cavalcante in a Facebook post on Wednesday morning.
“Today, Danelo Cavalcante will be placed back behind bars for the rest of his life. I also want to remember the victim, Deborah Brandão, whose family has been terrorized all over again over the past few weeks,” Muth wrote. “No amount of justice will bring Deborah back to her family, but today at least they can sleep a little easier knowing that Cavalcante cannot hurt anyone else.”
One of the first calls the district Attorney made after Cavalcante”™s capture was to the family of Brandão, who had been “barricaded inside their homes not feeling safe anywhere,” since his escape, Ryan said.
“They were shrieking with joy and happiness that he”™s incarcerated,” Ryan said Wednesday. “They have lived their own personal nightmare.”
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