The New York State Police recently released age-progression photos of what the escaped killers Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, may look like after 10 days on the run. 

MALONE, N.Y. — Escaped killer Richard Matt was shot and killed Friday afternoon by law enforcement officials searching for him in the wilderness area where his DNA was found in a cabin near the Canadian border.

His companion escapee, David Sweat, fled into the thick woods off State Route 30 south of Malone where the shooting occurred. He was being hotly pursued by scores of armed officers.

A resident of the area, Patricia Duffy, said she believes there was a shootout, with the first shots fired by the convicts..

The violent turn came 20 days after Matt and Sweat, also a convicted killer, escaped from New York’s largest maximum security prison in Dannemora, 50 miles southeast of the shooting in the northeast corner of the state.

Matt was shot at 4:10 p.m., only a few hours after authorities reported they found DNA evidence that the escapees had broken into two camp cabins in the Adirondack Mountain region not far from the shooting scene.

Matt was shot by members of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, the Press-Republican reported. 

Duff said the owner of a camp in the area, Bobby Willett, “found a liquor bottle sitting out that he had not drank out of … called the cops, and a bunch of them went up there.”

Duffy said Matt was shot and killed shortly thereafter.

Mitch Johnson, a cousin of the cabin owner, said the escapees had apparently broken into a hunting cabin on a dirt drive a short distance from Willett’s home.

“He lives near the camp,” said Johnson of Willett. “He was outside talking to police, and then they heard shots in the woods.”

Duffy said police chased after Sweat with all terrain vehicles.

“I’ve never seen ATVs go that fast,” said Duffy. “The cops took off into the woods.”

Discovery of the DNA evidence focused the search army of 1,100 law enforcement officers on the area surrounding the cabin in Malone. Residents received automated phone calls alerting them to the increased police presence. Searchers swarmed rural roadways, logging trails, barns and other vacant buildings looking for the fugitives.

Matt, who turned 49 Thursday, and Sweat, 35, broke out of the maximum security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora on June 6.

Donald Silver, who has lived in the area for 55 years, said authorities combed his property and environs for several hours, starting Thursday afternoon.

“I was out at a meeting last night,” said Silver. “When I came home about 9 o’clock there were police all over, an officer every 50 to 100 feet.”

Silver said search officials told him they were certain the escaped convicts remained “in this area somewhere.” Silver suspected they were breaking into the wilderness cabins and summer camps to resupply themselves with food and clothes.

Authorities warned camp officials and cabin owners to be on the lookout for the escapees, described by police as extremely dangerous and likely armed. Matt was serving 25 years to life for kidnapping, torturing and dismembering the body of his onetime boss; Sweat was imprisoned for life, with no chance of parole, for killing a deputy sheriff.

Details for this story were provided by the Plattsburgh, N.Y., Press-Republican.