MALONE — For Richard Matt, a long life of crime ended when he was ordered to put up his hands and didn't.

The Clinton Correctional Facility inmate, after 21 days on the run with fellow escapee David Sweat, was shot and killed Friday by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection tactical team.

At his side, New York State Police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico said, lay a .20-gauge shotgun.

Sweat remained on the run.

SHOT AT TRAILER

Matt proved the engineer of his own demise.

Shortly before 2 p.m. Friday, a sharp retort caught the ear of a person behind the wheel of a vehicle towing a camper trailer in the Town of Malone, near the Duane town line.

He thought it might be a flat tire, but it wasn't, D'Amico told the story at a press conference Friday night at the State Police barracks in Malone.

Then, 8 miles later, the man discovered a bullet hole in the back of the trailer and called police.

As happened many times at the report of possible sightings of the fugitives over the past three weeks, police and their search partners raced to the spot.

Locals, their hopes raising, noted the buzz of helicopters, the quick closure of county routes 30 and 41 in Malone, the sudden influx of guards at the roadside.

'MATT DIDN'T FIRE'

This time, Matt's luck had turned.

Police, estimating the location from which the shot was fired, searched a nearby cabin, smelled a whiff of gunpowder.

Someone had fled the structure, D'Amico said, and then ground movement was detected.

Matt "was verbally challenged, told to put up his hands.

"He was shot when he didn't comply."

Matt did not fire upon the tactical team, D'Amico said.

SEARCH GOES ON

The search continued immediately for Sweat.

He wasn't seen with Matt in those final moments; there was no sign he had been with him at the cabin.

"We have no reason to believe that Mr. Sweat was not with Mr. Matt at the time, but we don't have any confirming evidence that he was, either," said Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who flew to Malone for the press conference.

LIQUOR BOTTLE FOUND

Matt was shot close to the site of a cabin on Fayette Road where, police know, he had been this week.

Feces found at that cabin had tested DNA positive for connection to Matt, sources told the Press-Republican.

Patricia Duffy, who lives on Fayette Road, said the final showdown with Matt happened just west of Route 30.

The owner of the camp, Bobby Willett, "found a liquor bottle sitting out that he had not drank out of," Duffy said shortly after Matt was killed.

"He called the cops, and a bunch of them went up there."

Mitch Johnson, Willett's cousin, said the convicts had apparently broken into the hunting cabin, which is down a dirt drive, just a short distance from Willett's home.

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

Police also heard gunshots, and right after that, police rushed into the woods with ATVs.

"I've never seen ATVs go that fast," Duffy said.

She watched as more law enforcement raced to the area, now in pursuit of Sweat.

“I am awfully glad it's partially over," she said. "I wasn’t looking for anyone in this thing to die."

'DANGEROUS KILLERS'

"You never want to see anyone lose their life," the governor said at Friday night's press conference.

But Matt, he reminded the crowd, had murdered at least two people, and Sweat killed a Broome County sheriff's deputy."

Sweat is a very dangerous man, the governor warned.

GUN STOLEN FROM CAMP

DNA had confirmed that Matt and Sweat broke into a hunting camp in Mountain View on Saturday, June 20.

Friday night, D'Amico said a .20-gauge shotgun had been stolen from there.

Police had worked under the assumption, from the start, that the fugitives were armed.

The progression of evidence left by Matt and Sweat, including some candy wrappers found Friday, seemed to indicate they were headed in a north, northwest direction, State Police Troop B Commander Major Charles Guess had said earlier Friday.

The fugitives, he said, had accessed some "basic items" from hunting camps along their route, "dropped some and left them behind."

Matt, however, had not strayed far from the Malone camp he'd broken into.

"The last positive sighting of Sweat," D'Amico said, pausing for a few seconds, "was at the time (before) his escape."

The hunt for him would continue in the same area, the police superintendent said.

Other leads would be pursued as well.

"We'll search 24 hours a day until we find him," D'Amico said.

Email Suzanne Moore:

smoore@pressrepublican.com

Twitter: @editorSuzanne