Eric Frein had been one of the FBI's 10-most-wanted fugitives since the Sept. 12, 2014, ambush that killed on Pennsylvania State trooper and seriously wounded another.(Photo: FBI)
Eric Frein, suspected of killing one Pennsylvania trooper and wounding another in a September ambush, was captured Thursday after 48 days on the run, the state police confirmed.
The 31-year-old Frein, who was one of the FBI's 10-most-wanted fugitives, reportedly was armed when U.S. marshals found him at a hanger on an abandoned airport in Tannersville. That's about 35 miles from the scene of the Sept. 12 attack on the state police barracks in Blooming Grove.
WPVI-TV, citing sources, said marshals on routine patrol found him inside the hangar at the old Birchwood-Pocono Airpark. Sources told KYW-TV he was arrested while trying to enter the hangar.
Law enforcement sources told news organizations Frein surrendered peacefully.
"I can confirm that we have taken Eric Frein into custody. Further information will be released at a later time," state police spokeswoman Connie Devens said in a statement to WPVI.
Frein had eluded capture in the rugged mountain woods since the Sept. 12 attack in the rural hamlet about 25 miles from the Canadensis home where he lived with his parents.
Firing from woods across from the barracks, the gunman used a high-powered rifle to kill Cpl. Bryon Dickson and wound Trooper Alex Douglass during shift change. The exact motive for the killing has not been announced, but Frein had voiced strong sentiments against government and law enforcement.
Authorities have said they do not believe the troopers were specifically targeted.
Frein has been charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder.
He was described as a survivalist and expert marksman who role-played as a Serbian soldier.
Over the last several weeks, trackers found items they believe Frein hid or abandoned in the woods - including soiled diapers, empty packs of Serbian cigarettes, an AK-47-style assault rifle and ammunition and two pipe bombs that were functional and capable of causing significant damage.
They also discovered a journal, allegedly kept by Frein and found in a bag of trash at a hastily abandoned campsite, that offered a chilling account of the ambush and his subsequent escape into the woods. The journal's author described Dickson as falling "still and quiet" after being shot twice.
Amid the manhunt by about 1,000 state, federal and local officers, schools were closed, road blocks disrupted traffic and delayed movement and residents often were ordered to shelter in place after reported sightings of the fugitive.
Police spotted a man they believed to be Frein at several points during the manhunt, but it was always from a distance, with the rugged terrain allowing him to keep them at bay. Police said he appeared to be treating the manhunt as a game.
Frein expressed anti-law enforcement views online and to people who knew him. His criminal record appears limited to a decade-old misdemeanor case involving items stolen from a World War II re-enactors event in upstate New York, for which he spent 109 days in jail.
Contributing: Associated Press
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