Eric
M. Frein, the fugitive accused of killing one state trooper and
seriously wounding another in an ambush, was captured Thursday and
brought back to the barracks near Scranton, Pa., where his seven-week
flight from the law began.
Mr.
Frein surrendered to federal marshals who found him hiding out in an
abandoned airport in the Poconos Mountains, ending an intense manhunt
that began Sept. 12, officials said in a news conference late Thursday.
The marshals turned him over to the Pennsylvania State Police, who
placed him in the slain trooper’s handcuffs and patrol car.
“Frein
has been stripped of his guns, his bombs and his freedom,” said Sam
Rabadi, the special agent in charge of the Philadelphia field office of
the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “This
community can now rest. He now has to answer for his violent actions.”
A
heavily armed police caravan brought Mr. Frein back to the township,
Blooming Grove, where he was being held in a cell at the police barracks
awaiting his arraignment and transfer to a Pike County detention
center.
Mr.
Frein faces charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree
murder, possession of weapons of mass destruction and reckless
endangerment. Raymond Tonkin, the Pike County district attorney, said he
plans to seek the death penalty.
On
the day of the shooting, the police said, Mr. Frein concealed himself
in the woods across the street from the Blooming Grove state trooper
barracks and opened fire. Cpl. Bryon K. Dickson II, 38, who was leaving
work, was killed. Alex T. Douglass, a trooper arriving for his shift,
was wounded.
After
firing four rounds, the authorities say, Mr. Frein, a self-taught
survivalist, fled into the countryside. He was identified as the suspect
about five days later, when a Jeep Cherokee Sport was found in a
retention pond about two miles from the barracks.
Investigators
retrieved shell casings from the vehicle that matched those collected
at the scene of the shootings. Mr. Frein’s driver’s license and Social
Security card were also found in the Jeep, as well as empty rifle cases,
camouflage face paint and information about foreign embassies. Officers
later found a rifle and ammunition in the woods.
About a week after the shootings, the F.B.I. added Mr. Frein to its list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.
The
hunt was a frustrating game of cat and mouse for the police, who were
searching for him in the thick woods of the Pocono Mountains. The police
and residents caught glimpses of Mr. Frein in the woods, but officers
were unable to get close.
State
officials held a series of news conferences at which they offered
assurances that Mr. Frein’s capture was imminent. Throughout, officials
also tried to assure residents that Mr. Frein had a hatred of law
enforcement and wanted to target police officers, not the general
public.
“Some
of the sightings have occurred in circumstances where he kept himself
far enough away, where he knew that it was unlikely that someone could
get to him,” Lt. Col. George Bivens of the state police said at one of
his weekly updates on the manhunt. As the search dragged on, deer
hunting was called off for that region of Pennsylvania. Officials in
Barrett Township canceled trick-or-treating on Friday and the 50th
annual Halloween parade.
Continue reading the main story
Cheri
Jones, an organizer on the Barrett Township Halloween Committee, lives
on a farm next to an elementary school whose grounds police have used to
send helicopters over the woods to aid in the search for Mr. Frein. She
said his capture brought her a sense of relief and hope for a night of
sleep uninterrupted by the sound of helicopters.
“Finally, it’s over,” she said. “It looks like the town is ready to have a big celebration.”
Colonel
Bivens told reporters in September that a search of a computer used by
Mr. Frein found indications that he had been planning the attack for
some time, and that he had looked into how to evade police manhunts. Mr.
Frein also experimented with explosives, Colonel Bivens said, and
officers searching the woods have kept a watch for booby-traps.
“I
suspect he wants to have a fight with the state police, but I think
that involves hiding and running, since that seems to be the way he
operates,” Colonel Bivens said, according to The Associated Press. “I
expect that he’ll be hiding and try to take a shot from some distance
from a place of concealment, as he has done in the past.”
During
the manhunt, the police seized supplies of food, including tuna fish
and instant noodles, as well as 90 rounds from a rifle of the same type
used in the ambush. Colonel Bivens told reporters that the police
believed Mr. Frein had been searching trash cans at cabins, groceries
and restaurants, looking for food.
At
one point, officers found at least one pack of Drina cigarettes, a
Serbian brand Mr. Frein was said to have smoked, as well as soiled
diapers, which Colonel Bivens said could have been strategically placed
to throw them off his trail.
“I almost think this is a game to him,” Colonel Bivens said.
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