A survivalist accused of ambushing two state troopers, killing one and seriously wounding the other, was captured by US marshals near an abandoned airplane hangar, ending a seven-week manhunt that had rattled the nerves of area residents.
Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Eric Frein, who meekly gave himself up when surrounded on Thursday, authorities said.
“He did not just give up because he was tired,” Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said. “He gave up because he was caught.”
State police said they did not know whether Frein, who was unarmed when captured, had been using the hangar as a shelter during his 48 days on the run, and they would not say what they found there.
Frein was held in the handcuffs of the trooper he is accused of killing, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett said on Thursday at a nighttime news conference.
The quiet takedown of Frein, who kneeled and put his hands up when marshals approached him, ended weeks of tension and turmoil in the area, as authorities at times closed schools, canceled outdoor events and blockaded roads to pursue him.
Residents grew weary of hearing helicopters overhead, while small businesses suffered mounting losses and town supervisors canceled a popular Halloween parade.
Frein is charged with opening fire outside the Blooming Grove barracks on Sept. 12, killing Corporal Bryon Dickson and seriously wounding Trooper Alex Douglass. After his arrest on Thursday near the abandoned hangar, he was placed in Dickson’s car for the ride back to the barracks, about 48km away.
Douglass and his family, and Dickson’s family, expressed “relief and gratitude” over Frein’s arrest, Noonan said.
Police said they linked Frein to the ambush after a man walking his dog discovered his partly submerged SUV three days later in a swamp a few kilometers from the shooting scene. Inside, investigators found shell casings matching those found at the barracks, as well as Frein’s driver’s license, camouflage face paint, two empty rifle cases and military gear.
Officials, saying Frein was armed and extremely dangerous, had urged residents to be alert and cautious. Using dogs, thermal imaging technology and other tools, law enforcement officials combed kilometers of forest as they hunted for Frein, whom they called an experienced survivalist at home in the woods.
They pursued countless tips and closed in on an area around Frein’s parents’ home in Canadensis after he used his cellphone to try contacting them and the signal was traced to a location about 3km away. At times police ordered nearby residents to stay inside or prevented them from returning home.
Trackers found items they believe Frein hid or abandoned in the woods — including soiled diapers, empty packs of Serbian cigarettes, an AK-47-style assault rifle and ammunition, and two pipe bombs that were functional and capable of causing significant damage.
They also discovered a journal, allegedly kept by Frein and found in a bag of trash at a hastily abandoned camp site, that offered a chilling account of the ambush and his subsequent escape into the woods. The journal’s author described Dickson as falling “still and quiet” after being shot twice.
Police spotted a man they believed to be Frein at several points during the manhunt, but it was always from a distance, with the rugged terrain allowing him to keep them at bay. Police said he appeared to be treating the manhunt as a game.
Frein, 31, had expressed anti-law-enforcement views online and to people who knew him. His criminal record appeared limited to a decade-old misdemeanor case involving items stolen from a World War II re-enactors event in upstate New York, for which he spent 109 days in jail.
Police found a US Army manual titled Sniper Training and Employment in his bedroom at his parents’ house and his father, a retired army major, told authorities that his son is an excellent marksman who “doesn’t miss,” according to a police affidavit.
Authorities believe Frein had been planning a confrontation with police for years, citing information they found on a computer he had used.
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