Search for escapee Michael Burham echoes 2006 'Bucky' Phillips manhunt: GoErie archive

The search for escaped inmate Michael Burham in northwestern Pennsylvania has brought to mind for many the 2006 search for another escaped inmate, Ralph "Bucky" Phillips.

Phillips escaped from the Erie County Correctional Facility near Buffalo in April 2006, using a can opener to cut through a roof, and led authorities on the largest manhunt in New York state history. He found early support as something of an anti-hero, most obvious in numerous signs that advised "Run, Bucky, Run" and other slogans. Before police flushed him out of the woods in Warren County, Pa., on Sept. 8, 2006, Phillips shot three New York state troopers, killing one. Phillips later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Erie Times-News public safety reporter Tim Hahn covered the search for the fugitive and filed this report about Phillips' capture, which appeared in the Sept. 9, 2006, Times-News. Time elements in the original article have been updated for ease of reading.

2006: Fugitive Ralph 'Bucky' Phillips captured in Warren County

AKELEY, Pa. ― Ralph "Bucky" Phillips ended his run from the law with his hands in the air.

The 44-year-old prison escapee and suspect in the killing of a New York State Police trooper surrendered by walking out of the woods near this northern Warren County village shortly after 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8, 2006.

He was unharmed and was carrying no weapons, police said. Reports from the scene indicated police used infrared sensors to trap Phillips.

Troopers squeezed Phillips out of the woods by closing in on him in a "pincer movement," New York State Police Superintendent Wayne Bennett said.

"The game was up, and he knew it," Bennett said. "He got to the point where there was nowhere to go."

He said a police helicopter was overhead, and a SWAT team surrounded Phillips when he gave up.

"You are not going to shoot one of our people and get away with it," Bennett said during a nationally televised news conference broadcast live at 9:15 p.m. Sept. 8 "Sooner or later they get that last look over their shoulder, and the game is up."

Though Phillips walked out of the woods unarmed, troopers were ready to shoot him if he presented a danger, Bennett said.

"We were prepared to kill him, considering what he has done," Bennett said.

State police and other agencies had offered a reward of $425,000 for information leading to the capture of Phillips. Bennett said he does not believe anyone will be qualified to collect the money because Phillips gave up on his own.

Police had methodically moved closer to Phillips on Sept. 8. Just before nightfall, 25 SWAT officers and 12 dogs swept through a field where he was thought to be hiding, according to the Associated Press. Then Phillips walked out.

"A few of my guys had spotted him in an open field, the helicopter zeroed in on him," Lenny DePaul, commanding officer of the U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force, told the AP.

Officers took Phillips into custody from the Cable Hollow Golf Course, on Cable Hollow Road in Pine Grove Township, Pennsylvania State Police spokesman Cpl. Mark Zaleski said.

Onlookers on the side of the road cheered loudly as police sped by with Phillips in a cruiser, according to reports from the scene. Phillips, looking haggard, slouched down in the back seat with a police officer seated beside him.

A helicopter and police escort accompanied a U.S. Marshals Service vehicle that drove Phillips to Buffalo, where he was to be held at the Erie County Correctional Facility, in Alden, to await his arraignment at 10 a.m. Sept. 9 That is the same jail from which Phillips escaped by using a can opener to cut a hole in a kitchen ceiling April 2.

'A lot of work still left to do'

Police on Saturday, Sept. 9, were to return to the woods around the golf course, which is near Akeley and Russell, to look for guns that troopers believe Phillips left behind. Phillips is accused of breaking into a gun shop during his five months on the lam.

"We have a lot of work still left to do," Bennett said. " A lot of firearms are still unaccounted for."

Phillips' surrender ended an intensive, 12-hour search that capped one of the largest police manhunts in the history of New York state. Sept. 8's search began when New York State Police troopers chased Phillips back into Warren County. Troopers said the chase started after Phillips tried to drive a stolen car from Pennsylvania into western New York at about 2 a.m. Sept. 8.

Police said they cornered Phillips after the chase ended in a wooded area around the Cable Hollow Golf Course in Pine Grove Township, where police said Phillips ditched the car and ran into the woods.

An army of federal, state and local law enforcement, supported on the ground by search dogs and in the air by a pair of helicopters and a plane, spent the rest of the day trying to flush Phillips out of the roughly seven-mile search area around the golf course.

"I believe this is our best shot so far," Bennett said at a news conference at about 1:15 p.m. Sept. 8.

He said Phillips, a Chautauqua County, N.Y., native known for his outdoor skills, was not as familiar with the area police were searching. Bennett said that unfamiliarity would prevent Phillips from coming up with a plan to hide in the woods.

Phillips, who had threatened "suicide by cop" and once promised to "splatter pig meat all over Chautauqua County," was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. He is suspected of killing a state trooper and wounding two others while he was on the run.

The first shooting that happened during his flight was on June 10. New York State Police Trooper Sean Brown was shot in the abdomen during a traffic stop near Elmira, N.Y. Brown has since recovered and returned to duty. In the second shooting, which occurred Aug. 31, two troopers were shot while setting up surveillance near the home of Phillips' ex-girlfriend near Cassadaga, N.Y.

New York State Police Trooper Joseph Longobardo, 32, died of his wounds three days after the shooting. He will be buried Monday.

The other shot New York State Police trooper, Donald Baker Jr., 38, remains in critical condition at Hamot Medical Center. Bennett said Baker is in a medically induced coma and is breathing through a ventilator (Baker recovered).

A long search

New York State Police troopers working special duty at about 2 a.m. Sept. 8 spotted Phillips as he tried to drive a car reported stolen from Glade Township, Warren County, into southern Chautauqua County, authorities said.

Police believe Phillips stole another car from Glade Township earlier the morning of Sept. 8. But that car was wrecked and abandoned somewhere in the Warren area before the second car was taken and driven by Phillips into New York, Cpl. Zaleski said.

After Phillips abandoned the second stolen car at Cable Hollow Golf Course, police sealed off several roads running between Frewsburg, N.Y., and Akeley, and called in search teams.

"This area is a very rugged, rural area that's very difficult to maneuver in," said Zaleski of the Pennsylvania State Police.

Authorities said they used more than 100 officers on foot and in vehicles to search the area for most of the day Sept. 8. Most of the searching centered on an area north of the golf course, in the area of Gouldtown and Norberg roads.

Search teams reported spotting Phillips several times around the golf course and in the woods and swamp surrounding it during the search.

Two New York State Police troopers got close enough to Phillips at one point to see him holding a pistol, authorities said. One of the troopers fired all of the bullets in his gun at Phillips, but failed to hit him before Phillips ducked deeper into the woods, police said.

A village shut down

The 100 people who were playing the Cable Hollow Golf Course were ordered off the links as the search intensified at about 10 a.m. Sept. 8.

Most players were permitted to leave the property by driving down Cable Hollow Road, which was sealed off east at Akeley. But a few, as well as some course employees, were ordered to stay in the clubhouse until officers escorted them from the property.

"I think for the most part people were relaxed," said pro shop employee Don Anderson, who was allowed to leave after three hours. "We just locked the doors and waited."

Residents living around the golf course were allowed to stay on their property. Once they left, police prohibited them from returning to their homes on Cable Hollow Road or the other roads bordering the search area.

Most of the displaced residents congregated at the Fox-Mart, a general store and sandwich shop wedged at the intersections of Old Route 62 and Cable Hollow Road, about 1½ miles east of the golf course.

Ike Waterman stood on the front porch of the store and wondered aloud to neighbors if the constant hum of helicopters was scaring the horses on his 100-acre farm nearby.

Waterman also wondered how much more of the excitement he could take.

"For me, at first it was, 'Run, Bucky, run!' Now, it's scary, shots were fired," Waterman said. "I'm stressed out. My chest hurts."

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Michael Burham manhunt summons comparisons to 'Bucky' Phillips in 2006