Prosecutors seek death penalty for suspect in Pennsylvania police killing
US prosecutors to seek death penalty for survivalist sought for police sniper ambush
PUBLISHED : Friday, 31 October, 2014, 10:37pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 01 November, 2014, 3:54am
Reuters in Blooming Grove
An FBI picture of alleged police killer Eric Frein. Photo: EPA
A survivalist suspected of killing a Pennsylvania state trooper in a sniper attack in September could face the death penalty, prosecutors in the US state said, after a seven-week manhunt ended with his arrest.
Eric Frein, 31, had eluded capture by hundreds of law enforcement officers since the September 12 ambush outside a state police barracks in Blooming Grove. The attack killed Corporal Bryon Dickson, 38, and wounded 31-year-old Trooper Alex Douglass.
Frein's capture on Thursday, about 50km south of where the ambush occurred, may shed light on the mysteries that have surrounded the crime and how the suspect was able to stay one step ahead of authorities for 48 days.
"Eric Frein had a mission and that was to attack law enforcement," said Frank Noonan, commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police. "If he got out of those woods, we were very concerned he would then kill more law enforcement, if not civilians."
Prosecutors will seek capital punishment for Frein, who faces a first-degree murder charge and one count of homicide of a police officer, among others.
Officers from the US Marshals service on a routine patrol captured Frein outside an abandoned aircraft hangar at a shuttered resort in Tannersville, Pennsylvania.
Frein, who was on the FBI's most wanted list, surrendered without incident, police said. Two firearms were found in the hangar but Frein was carrying no weapons.
Police have said the suspect, an expert marksman who dressed like a Serbian soldier in a war re-enactment group, held a long-standing grudge against law enforcement but they have provided little evidence.
The heavy police presence and the aggressive tactics employed during the manhunt rattled many residents of the normally peaceful area of Pennsylvania, even as the shootings appalled the community.
Many parents near the search area were planning to stop their children from trick-or-treating yesterday. But with Frein's capture, Halloween is likely to be back on.
