Police Seeking Fugitive Converge Near Pennsylvania-New York Line

CARROLL, N.Y. (AP) – Police fired at a man believed to be fugitive Ralph “Bucky” Phillips early Friday morning after the fleeing suspect aimed a handgun at an officer, sparking a massive search for the gunman suspected of killing a state trooper, New York State Police Superintendent Wayne Bennett said.Mr. Bennett said Phillips was not in custody as of 1:15 p.m. It could not be determined if Phillips was hit by the gunfire; Mr. Bennett said there was no sign of blood at the scene.Mr. Bennett said police believe they’ve got Phillips contained in an area straddling the state line near Carroll, N.Y., about 65 miles south of Buffalo.“There wasn’t really any time to put a plan into effect,” Mr. Bennett said when asked if police thought Phillips managed to escape. “He hasn’t had any time to make any contact with a safe house.”“I don’t know what his plan was, but we interrupted it,” Mr. Bennett said.Mr. Bennett said Phillips was caught in an area with relatively little area between roads that are heavily patrolled by police who remain in eye contact. Phillips would have to cross one of those roads to escape.“I think he’s made a mistake,” Mr. Bennett said. “I hope it’s a big enough one and we can capitalize on it.”But, Mr. Bennett cautioned, despite hundreds of police officers in the area, bringing Phillips in was not guaranteed.“He couldn’t get any more dangerous,” Mr. Bennett said. “He is totally unpredictable.”Friday’s frantic activity started shortly before 2 a.m. in Pennsylvania when a police officer tried to pull over a stolen car. After a short chase, the car crashed and the driver fled into the woods.About half an hour later, Phillips stole a second car and drove back into New York, where state troopers located him and launched a second chase, Mr. Bennett said.With troopers in pursuit, Phillips bailed out of the moving car and again ducked into the woods, once again cutting into Pennsylvania. Police using dogs tracked his scent for several hours until 9:10 a.m. when he was spotted by two troopers, Mr. Bennett said.As troopers approached, one of the dogs growled and Phillips wheeled around with a pistol in his hand but did not fire. One of the troopers fired an undisclosed number of shots as Phillips disappeared into the heavily wooded terrain.Bennett said Phillips was wearing camouflage pants, no hat, sneakers and a purple sweatshirt around his waist. He still had the shoulder-length brown hair that he wore in a widely distributed recent photo.Friday morning, SWAT teams, police helicopters and state troopers converged on this small town as the search intensified.Phillips, who broke out of an Erie County jail in April, is suspected of killing a state trooper and wounding two others. He is on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list, the federal marshals’ 15 Most Wanted list and was to be featured on “America’s Most Wanted.”Marge Bortz, the owner of Cable Hollow Golf Course in Russell, Pa., eight miles from Carroll, said police told her Phillips was in the woods around the golf course and had fired shots. Police did not immediately confirm the gunfire.Ms. Bortz said she was told no one was hurt. Police, including a helicopter that landed on the golf course, swooped in about 9:30 a.m. and used a loud speaker to clear the course of about 100 golfers, Ms. Bortz said.She told The Associated Press she didn’t know if they were still searching on her property. The course was closed and there were 10 people locked in the clubhouse, including Ms. Bortz’s family and three employees.“My son said it was like a platoon of policemen who went in the woods in camo,” she told The Associated Press. “There’s police all over the place.”Clifford Cable, 81, lives about a mile from the golf course and has hunted the hilly terrain for decades.“It’s woods everywhere here,” he said. “You could hide anywhere.”A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said items in a backpack recovered from one of the stolen vehicles led police to believe Phillips was back on the prowl. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the case, said Phillips apparently stole a car out of a driveway in Carroll. The owner heard it and called police, sparking the search.“We know he’s in the area, or they suspect he’s in the area, so we’re just basically keeping an eye on the roads and trying to contain him in the area where they last saw him,” Sheffield, Pa., Township Police Chief George Jashurek, said before Bennett spoke.Jashurek spoke by cell phone to The Associated Press from Clendening Cemetery near Russell, Pa., where he and about six others were stationed Friday. Jashurek, wearing a bulletproof vest and other safety equipment, said he arrived at the scene around 6:30 a.m.Vehicles were stolen from the Cable Hollow area, Warren and from a third location he did not know, Jashurek said.Phillips, 44, became the subject of a massive search after allegedly shooting a state trooper near Elmira in June. That trooper survived.Authorities believe Phillips has been helped by numerous people since his escape, but has also broken into unoccupied hunting cabins in New York and Pennsylvania and stolen about 15 cars to remain ahead of police, authorities said.Phillips may have spent 11 days hiding out in a western Pennsylvania home last month, slipping back into New York at least once to steal 41 guns from a gun shop, authorities said.As New York lawmen searched for Phillips in the rural wooded areas of the southwestern tip of the state, he was staying _ at least some of the time _ at the home of Todd Allen Nelson in Ludlow, Pa., Pennsylvania state police said.Nelson, 30, was charged Aug. 31 with hindering the apprehension of Phillips after Pennsylvania troopers recovered 35 guns believed stolen from an Ellington, N.Y., gun shop at his home.Phillips is the main suspect in the gun shop break-in.Investigators are looking into whether one of the stolen guns was used in the shootings of two New York state troopers on Aug. 31 as they staked out the home of Phillips’ former girlfriend.Trooper Joseph Longobardo died Sunday; Donald Baker Jr. has been in critical condition since the shooting. Both troopers were struck with bullets from a high-powered rifle.

Police Seeking Fugitive Converge Near Pennsylvania-New York Line

Police Seeking Fugitive Converge Near Pennsylvania-New York Line

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