This Is A Weird One...

[Lord Jim]

Pa. police: 1 trooper dead, another injured in shooting

A massive manhunt was underway Saturday after two Pennsylvania State troopers were ambushed outside a police barracks in Blooming Grove, Pa. during a late-night shift change, leaving one dead and another injured.

The Times-Tribune, WNEP and the Associated Press identified Jeffrey Hudak, 48, as the person being questioned. However, WBRE and WYOU reported that Hudak is not considered a suspect.

"No one is in custody or under arrest," Trooper Connie Devens, a spokeswoman for Troop R in Dunmore, Pa., told the AP. "Mr. Hudak is being questioned as a person of interest."

Hudak, who was located as police were searching for a suspect or suspects in the shooting, has not been charged with a crime, Devens told The Times-Tribune.

The troopers were shot at about 11 p.m. Friday at the barracks in the township of nearly 5,000 people, located about 35 miles east of Scranton. Authorities from across the region, including New York and New Jersey, descended on northeastern Pennsylvania to help locate the shooter or shooters. Nearby Lackawanna County dispatched its SWAT team, and helicopters were seen flying over the area.

"We can't say that the situation is completely in hand," State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said at a 7 a.m. news conference. "This has been an emotional night for all of us."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... /15574705/

Who picks a state police barracks as a target for a shooting? There's a pretty good chance you're going to get shot back at...(though in this case, that didn't happen; maybe the shots were fired from a distance...)

I find this bit kind of suspicious:

during a late-night shift change

That's awfully coincidental...

It seems to me the folks most likely to have that information are people very familiar with the procedures at this particular police facility...(employees, former employees, family members, etc.)

[rubato]

Shift change, police barracks, sounds like someone close to the victim(s) and a very personal motive.

BTW, if you have a gun and the element of surprise it does not matter if the other person is armed. Destroying completely the most foolish fallacy about carrying guns for protection.


yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

This has just been going on, and on, and on....I just watched the police report this in a press conference:

Suspect in trooper slaying believed spotted in Pennsylvania

(CNN) — Investigators believe there’s been another public sighting of Eric Matthew Frein, subject of a massive manhunt on suspicion of killing a Pennsylvania state trooper in a September ambush, a law enforcement official said Saturday.

A woman in eastern Pennsylvania told police she saw a man dressed in all black on Friday night, with his face covered in mud, armed with a long rifle with a scope, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Authorities believe the man was Frein, and are now searching the area of the sighting in Paradise Township, the official said.

Frein, 31, is suspected in the September 12 ambush shooting that left Cpl. Bryon Dickson dead and Trooper Alex T. Douglass wounded outside the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Blooming Grove.

A massive search for Frein has been carried out since, at times involving as many as 1,000 officers. Despite recent sightings and other leads, he has eluded authorities. The manhunt has cost several million dollars, State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said earlier this month.

Frein has been described as a survivalist and military re-enactment enthusiast with a hatred for law enforcement, authorities say.

http://q13fox.com/2014/10/18/source-sus ... nsylvania/

Early on they supposedly had him surrounded in a house, yet somehow he got away...

They've had numerous sightings, they found a food cache he had hidden away, they've found weapons he's left behind, (including pipe bombs, so in addition to being shot at by this guy they also have to be worried about booby traps) he's taunted them with letters that he's left for them, and still they haven't been able to nail him...

This guy is going to become, (if he hasn't already) a folk hero to other black helicopter kookaboo types...

My guess is he planned this whole thing out well in advance, (with multiple food and weapons caches) and he's loving every minute of it...This kind of cat and mouse chase with law enforcement is the ultimate fantasy fulfillment for a survivalist nutjob of this type...

Part of the problem I'm sure is that precisely because he is so dangerous (with all the rifles and the bomb making capability) even when he's sighted the cops have to move in only in force and in great numbers; one cop who sees him would have to be crazy to try to take him down alone...(plus of course they have to be sure that it's him)

I may be wrong, but I seriously doubt that this guy is planning on being taken alive...(Unless of course part of his particular narcissism includes being able to read about his "achievement" after it's over...not to mention all the marriage proposals he'll get... ) most likely he's going to want to go out in a blaze of glory...

The cops are hoping that the changing weather, (with the leaves falling off the trees providing better visibility and the colder temperatures increasing Frein's discomfort) will improve their ability to get finally apprehend him.

Of course he may have planned ahead for that too...

[Jarlaxle]

I suspect the dude knows every inch of the area.

I doubt it would take more than a couple days worth of observation to figure out when shifts change. Heck...he could have just set up earlier that day, waited for the shift change, then started shooting.

[Gob]

Suspected cop killer Eric Frein is in custody, Pennsylvania state police said on Thursday, ending a lengthy manhunt for one of the FBI's most-wanted fugitives.

In a brief, emailed statement to The Washington Post, Trooper Connie Devens confirmed that police have taken Eric Frein into custody. Police will release further information at "a later time." Devens declined to confirm other details pertaining to Frein's capture.

According to Philadelphia's ABC television station WPVI, Frein was captured Thursday afternoon.
The capture ends a 48-day search for the man accused of killing a Pennsylvania state trooper, Bryon Dickson, and wounding another, Alex Douglass, on September 12 in an ambush outside of Blooming Grove state police barracks.

More than 1000 Pennsylvania officers have participated in the search for Mr Frein in the dense woods of the Pocono Mountains.

Mr Frein, 31, is a survivalist who eluded capture for weeks, despite several reports of sightings. However, authorities found several items believed to belong to Mr Frein in the mountains, including military-style food packs, pipe bombs, ammunition, and clothing.

Police also found a handwritten journal, which included what police described as a "cold-blooded" account of the September 12 ambush.

The lengthy hunt unnerved nearby communities. Several schools closed in northeastern Pennsylvania last week as police investigated a possible sighting of the suspect. Barrett Township authorities cancelled Halloween. According to NBC's Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, Halloween is now back on after Mr Frein's capture.

Washington Post

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/suspected-c ... z3HgIP7LAn