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“Eric Frein was dedicated to killing law enforcement members,” Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said in a news conference with Gov. Tom Corbett. “I can’t think of a more dangerous occupation than going out into those woods and looking for him.”
Frein — who was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, with a reward of $175,000 — had a sniper rifle and knives but no shots were fired when he was captured in defunct Birchwood-Pocono Airpark in Tannersville around 6 p.m, Noonan said.
He dropped to his knees as the marshals moved in and was shackled in the handcuffs of Cpl. Bryon Dickson, the officer he’s accused of killing.
Frein/FBI
Frein, 31, was taken to the same Blooming Grove State Police barracks in Pike County where authorities said he ambushed Dickson, a 38-year-old father of two, and Trooper Alex Douglass, 31, whom he wounded, on Sept. 12.
Days after the shootings, investigators retrieved what they said was incriminating evidence in the self-trained survivalist’s Jeep, found partially submerged in a nearby pond.
It included two pipe bombs, an AK-47, ammunition and various food and supplies, as well as Frein’s Social Security card and state Game Commission range permit, camouflage face paint, flashlights, a black hoodie and information related to foreign embassies.
Frein apparently had been plotting the crime and escape for years, said authorities, citing bunker-building materials and a computer history that included sites dedicated to manhunts and police tactics.
Frein previously ducked authorities in upstate New York for more than a year before surrending in 2006 in connection with the theft of more than $3,800 worth of World War II military uniform reproductions during a re-enactment.
Authorities held him for more than three months before he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of criminal possession of stolen property. He was sentenced to time served.
Frein was hiding in the woods across from the barracks when he fired a .308-caliber rifle at the front door during a shift change out of some type of grudge against law enforcement.
New Jersey State Police joined their colleagues from Pennsylvania and New York, FBI agents and other federal authorities in a round-the-clock manhunt that lasted seven weeks.
Frein “has ties to the mid-Atlantic region—including the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York,” the FBI said, and “faces state charges of homicide, homicide of a law enforcement officer, and attempted murder, as well as a federal unlawful flight to avoid prosecution charge.”
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