New York – A NY state police spokesman said that the hunt for cop shooter and killer Ralph “Bucky” Phillips, is biggest in NY state History.
The New York City Police Department might also be sending a team of elite Emergency Service Unit officers to help with the search for the fugitive who is thought to have shot three state troopers, one of them fatally, since escaping from an upstate jail in April.
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The fugitive, described as a 6-foot, 240-pound member of the Seneca tribe of American Indians, is believed to have stolen an arsenal of guns and as many as 15 cars since escaping from Erie County Jail by using a can opener painstakingly to cut a 2-foot hole in the roof of the kitchen.
The manhunt for Ralph “Bucky” Phillips, 44, was stepped up to include more police from neighboring cities and state agencies after a state trooper, Joseph Longobardo, 32, died Sunday from a gunshot wound to his leg that he sustained last Thursday while looking for the fugitive.
Another trooper who was shot in the side, Donald Baker Jr., 38, was upgraded from critical to serious condition during the weekend, but went back to critical yesterday. On June 10, another trooper, Sean Brown, was shot in the stomach as he approached a suspicious car.
As many as 1000 law enforcement officers including FBI ATF DEA, are now involved in the search, and it might increase if he is not caught within the next few days.
The FBI will add Bucky on its 10 most wanted list replacing Polygamist Jeff’s, if Bucky is not caught within 10 days.
NY State Troopers have stoped a local train in Hamburg NY on a report of sightng of Buky, Police have warned the area to stay indoors and keep all doors locked, SPalso offered a reward of 225K.
U/D: 12:43
Ohio state Police are on the Lookout for Bucky. NY State Troopers gave no details why OH, but said they have some serious info. over there.o
CARROLL, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities believed they spotted a fugitive sought in one of New York’s largest manhunts on Friday, converging in a heavily wooded area near the Pennsylvania state line and clearing 100 golf players off a nearby course.
Ralph “Bucky” Phillips, who broke out of an Erie County jail in April, is suspected of killing a state trooper and wounding two others.
Marge Bortz, owner of Cable Hollow Golf Course in Warren County, Pa., told The Associated Press that police informed her Phillips is in the woods around the golf course and has fired shots.
Police did not immediately confirm the gunfire. Bortz said she was told no one was hurt.
The search is in a hilly, heavily wooded area cut through by creeks and dotted with seasonal camps and hunting stands.
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, Bortz said.
The course was closed and there were 10 people locked in the clubhouse, including Bortz’s family and three employees.
“My son said it was like a platoon of policemen who went in the woods in camo,” she said. “There’s police all over the place.”
A state police spokeswoman confirmed a “very possible Ralph Phillips’” sighting Friday. WBEN-AM in Buffalo reported that a driver refused to pull over for police early Friday after leaving Allegany State Park, along the Pennsylvania line.
The man fled on foot and ran into a wooded area outside Frewsburg, 65 miles south of Buffalo, the station reported.
CNN reported that items identified as belonging to Phillips were recovered from a stolen car he was driving early Friday.
Phillips, 44, became the subject of a massive search after allegedly shooting a state trooper near Elmira in June. 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.”
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.
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more lessons for terrorists as to the total inability of american law enforcement to know the location of undesirables in this much too large country.
FREDONIA, N.Y. (AP) — A state police official said Monday that “the noose is tightening” in the manhunt for an escaped inmate accused of a deadly police ambush, and warned hunters to stay out of the woods where the fugitive may be hiding.
Hunters in rural and wooded Chautauqua County are “interfering” with the search and face danger from Ralph “Bucky” Phillips and authorities pursuing him, State Police Maj. Michael Manning said.
“They can certainly be mistaken for the wrong individual,” Manning said.
Many officers are scouring the western New York woods for Phillips, the prime suspect in Thursday’s ambush of troopers Donald Baker Jr., 38, and Joseph Longobardo, 32, who died Sunday. Baker remained in serious condition at a hospital Monday, police said.
SWAT teams from Buffalo, Rochester and Jamestown joined troopers in the search Monday, Manning said. Other reinforcements have come from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, nearby Erie County and police agencies in neighboring Pennsylvania.
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