Pennsylvania State Trooper Killing Suspect Apprehended
CANADENSIS, Pa. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Pennsylvania State Police announced Thursday that they have apprehended a man who allegedly ambushed and killed one state trooper there, and left another wounded.
Pennsylvania State Police confirmed to CBS2 that Eric Frein, 31, has been taken into custody.
Sources tell KYW-TV, CBS3 Philadelphia that U.S. Marshals arrested Frein as he tried to enter a building in the Poconos. Sources said he was taken into custody without any resistance.
Authorities said Frein used a high-powered rifle to kill Cpl. Bryon Dickson -- a married ex-Marine with two sons -- and wound Trooper Alex Douglass outside the state police barracks in Blooming Grove, Pennsylvania on Sept. 12.
Frein -- described by authorities as a self-taught survivalist with a grudge against police -- had been on the run ever since, authorities said.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett says Frein's grudge was only with those who wear a badge, CBS Philly reported.
"There were unarmed civilians right in the exact same location during the course of the shooting [at the Blooming Grove barracks], and he chose not to shoot at them," Corbett said during a September 22nd news conference.
But some who know him said he has not always played the loner, and the reason for his hatred of police remained a mystery.
Frein belonged to the rifle team at Pocono Mountain High School, and as an adult joined a group that performed military re-enactments based on Cold War battles in Eastern Europe.
He even played a small role in a 2007 movie about a concentration camp survivor -- earning him a mention in the movie database IMDb -- and helped with props and historical references on a documentary about World War I.
Frein's father, retired Army Maj. E. Michael Frein, told police that he had taught his son to shoot. He ``doesn't miss,'' the father told state police during a search of the family home, when he also disclosed that an AK-47 and a .308 rifle with a scope were missing. A copy of the book, ``Sniper Training and Employment,'' was found in his bedroom.
Frein's only known legal problems stemmed from the 2004 theft of some vendor items at a World War II re-enactment in Odessa, New York. He failed to show for his trial, and was arrested in Pennsylvania as a fugitive from justice.
In the years that followed, from 2004 to 2013, he bought four firearms at Dunkelberger's Sports Outfitter in Stroudsburg, store owner Jere Dunkelberger told The Associated Press. He did not know what type of weapons they were.
On Frein's MySpace page, a photo appears to show him standing in front of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade. Frein played the part of a Serbian soldier in his re-enactments and the FBI said he had claimed to have studied Russian and Serbian and to have ``fought with Serbians in Africa.''
The FBI said Frein had ties to both New York and New Jersey, and New York State Crime Stoppers were involved in pitching help to solicit information about Frein's whereabouts.
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