Police finally capture Pennsylvania cop killer Eric Frein

After nearly two months of evading the police, fugitive Eric Frein was captured late Thursday and delivered back to the barracks where he started his crime spree. Frein surrendered to federal marshals after police cornered him in an abandoned airport in the Poconos Mountains, ending a two month manhunt that began last September. Federal authorities turned Frein over to State Police who handcuffed him in the trooper’s handcuffs that he murdered. A armed police caravan brought Frein back to Blooming Grove, where he is awaiting his arraignment and transfer to a Pike County detention facility.

Mr. Frein faces charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, possession of weapons of mass destruction and reckless endangerment. The county’s District Attorney plans on seeking the death penalty. A week after the shootings, the F.B.I. placed him on the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. The search became a game of cat and mouse. Several sightings of Frein were reported but police were unable to get close. The agent in charge of the ATF office in Philadelphia made an announcement after the capture of Frein. “Frein has been stripped of his guns, his bombs and his freedom.”

Frein gave up because he had no where to run and was outgunned. State Police commissioner Frank Noonan spoke to reporters detailing the capture of Frein. "When they approached it (the hangar), they saw an individual that they thought was Eric Frein, and they ordered him to surrender, to get down on his knees and raise his hands, which is what he did,” "Once they approached him, he admitted his identity and he was taken into custody."

A 15-year-old told local news in Scranton that he saw officers bring the captured suspect out. Reporters reached out to Frein’s sister who told the Times-Tribune that she wasn’t sure how to handle it. Authorities always updated the press and public about the ongoing manhunt and assured them that he would be captured. Colonel Bivens told reporters that:

I suspect he wants to have a fight with the state police, but I think that involves hiding and running, since that seems to be the way he operates,” “I expect that he’ll be hiding and try to take a shot from some distance from a place of concealment, as he has done in the past.”

Frein made his first appearance in court Friday morning appearing fatigued but was not asked to enter a plea and was not accompanied by an attorney. His next court appearance will be November 12. The District Attorney has spoken to investigators and told reporters that they “have now started to find some answers” behind the ambush.