By Associated Press
Buffalo, NY – Ralph Phillips, suspected of fatally shooting a state trooper and wounding two others, made an initial court appearance Saturday, hours after he surrendered following a five-month manhunt.
During the four-minute hearing, the exhausted and unshaven suspect answered "yes" when asked if he was Ralph Phillips and if had received a copy of the federal complaint charging him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Phillips, a 44-year-old career thief who has spent 20 of the past 23 years in state prison, surrendered in a field over the Pennsylvania state line Friday night without firing a shot. The arrest capped a frantic day that included troopers firing at him as he hid in the woods.
With helicopters circling above a field just over the Pennsylvania state line and SWAT teams and U.S. Marshals closing in, a gaunt and exhausted Phillips threw up his hands. Police ordered him to the ground, handcuffed him and sped him to New York state to face charges of attempted murder.
"The bottom line is the pressure was so great on him," said New York State Police Superintendent Wayne Bennett. "The game was up and he knew it.
Phillips will be transferred to Chemung County where he will be arraigned on an attempted murder charge in connection with the shooting of a trooper in June.
Police have said he could face other charges including aggravated murder and assault, burglary and larceny.
Phillips became the subject of a huge search after allegedly shooting a state trooper near Elmira in June. The trooper survived.
Then, authorities said, he ambushed and shot two New York state troopers on Aug. 31 as they staked out the home of Phillips' former girlfriend. One trooper, Joseph Longobardo, died on Sunday; the other, Donald Baker Jr., was in critical condition.
Bennett said Phillips surrender will help comfort the Longobardo family.
"Now this miserable creature will suffer for the rest of his life in the New York state prison system," he said.