Man suspected of killling US cop captured after massive manhunt

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TANNERSVILLE, Pennsylvania (TIP): The survivalist suspected of killing a Pennsylvania state trooper and seriously wounding a second officer in a sniper attack in September was taken into custody after a seven-week manhunt, police said on October 30. Eric Matthew Frein, 31, eluded capture by hundreds of law enforcement officers who had been searching for him since the Sept 12 ambush of the troopers outside a state police barracks in Blooming Grove. The attack killed Corporal Bryon Dickson, 38, and wounded Trooper Alex Douglass, 31.

Frein’s capture may finally shed light on some of the questions that have baffled authorities and the public since the shooting, including a motive for the ambush and how Frein was able to stay one step ahead of the intense search for so long. The search has involved hundreds of officers from state, local and federal agencies, using helicopters, armored vehicles and sophisticated tracking technology. Officers from the US Marshals service captured Frein in an abandoned aircraft hangar at the shuttered Birchwood Resort in Tannersville, Pennsylvania, according to the supervisor at the Monroe County 911 Emergency Dispatch Center.

Authorities were intending to take him to Blooming Grove, site of the ambush, the supervisor said. Frein surrendered without incident, according to local media, citing unnamed sources. Tannersville, about 100 miles (160 km) north of Philadelphia, is the area of the Poconos where police have concentrated their search. Since the start of the manhunt, authorities have insisted that Frein, an expert marksman who lived with his parents in Canadensis, was hiding nearby, taking refuge in the dense state forests and game lands that blanket the region.

There were several reported sightings of him during the manhunt, but police said they were unable to get close enough to apprehend him. A search of a computer hard drive used by the suspect, Eric Frein, revealed he had studied survivalist skills and tips on how to evade law enforcement. Police have also said that the suspect, who dressed like a Serbian soldier in a war reenactment group and had a penchant for foreign languages, held a longstanding grudge against law enforcement.

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