Fredonia, N.Y. – 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 hunters were warned to stay out of the woods where the fugitive may be hiding.
Hunters are “interfering” with the search and face danger from Ralph “Bucky” Phillips and the authorities pursuing him, State Police Maj. Michael Manning said.
Hunters “can certainly be mistaken for the wrong individual,” Manning said.
Officers are scouring the western New York woods for Phillips, the suspect in Thursday’s ambush. Trooper Joseph Longobardo, 32, died Sunday. Trooper Donald Baker Jr., 38, was in serious condition at a hospital Monday, police said.
Phillips, 44, wounded another trooper near Elmira in June and has eluded police since his April 2 escape from an Erie County jail.
SWAT teams from Buffalo, Rochester and Jamestown joined troopers in the search Monday, Manning said. Other reinforcements have come from the FBI, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, nearby Erie County and police agencies in neighboring Pennsylvania.
Manning would not say how many law enforcement officers are involved in the manhunt, but he said the search and recent arrests of Phillips’ supporters have put pressure on the suspect.
“I think he’s in hiding. I don’t think he has any place to go now,” Manning said. “The noose is tightening.”
Manning added that there is “no reason to believe he has left the area.”
