Prosecutors seek death penalty for suspect in Pennsylvania police killing
US prosecutors to seek death penalty for survivalist sought for police sniper ambush
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.