Page 1 of 8 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 72

Thread: Eric Matthew Frein - Pennsylvania Death Row

  1. #1
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875

    Eric Matthew Frein - Pennsylvania Death Row


    Corporal Bryon Keith Dickson




    Frein was armed when taken into custody: report

    A federal law enforcement official says a man accused of killing one Pennsylvania state trooper and seriously injuring another during an ambush last month was armed when he was captured by U.S. marshals.

    Previous:

    Eric Frein taken into custody by police

    Search for Eric Frein: Map, timeline since the trooper ambush
    Experimental balloon with cameras used in Eric Frein manhunt sent back to Ohio, state police say
    Possible sighting of Eric Frein leads to search with K-9s, but no one found, state police say

    The official in Washington wasn't authorized to discuss the circumstances of Eric Frein's arrest and spoke to The Associated Press anonymously.

    Authorities in Pennsylvania confirmed they had Frein in custody Thursday following a seven-week hunt for him.

    Authorities have called Frein a survivalist who had a vendetta against law enforcement. They had been pursuing him in the woods and had reported several suspected sightings.

    Frein is charged with opening fire outside the Blooming Grove barracks on Sept. 12. Cpl. Bryon Dickson was killed, and Trooper Alex Douglass was critically wounded in the attack.

    Frein's parents have declined to comment.

    http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...l#incart_river
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #2
    Senior Member CnCP Addict maybeacomedian's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    IL
    Posts
    657
    Since this happened outside of a barracks, could this potentially end up being a Military case? Or do you think it will be a Pennsylvania state case?

  3. #3
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Bryon Dickson was a Pennsylvania state trooper but was not a member of the US military. This case will most decidedly not be a military case.

  4. #4
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875



    Manhunt ends with suspect placed in slain trooper's handcuffs

    By Michael Winter, John Bacon and William M. Welch
    USA TODAY

    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 governor and state police officials confirmed.

    "Now he will face justice,'' Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said.

    The local district attorney immediately said he would charge Frein with murder and would seek the death penalty.

    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 at a small, 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.

    State police commissioner Frank Noonan said a group of U.S. Marshals spotted him in a field near the hangar while searching the area. They ordered him to surrender and fall to his knees, Noonan said, and Frein complied.

    "He was definitely surprised,'' Noonan said.

    "He gave up because he was caught and he had no choice but to give up,'' Noonan said.

    He said Frein "did not have a gun on his person'' when captured.

    He said when he was turned over to state police, they placed him in handfuffs belonging to the state trooper he is accused of killing, Cpl. Byron Dickson, and placed him in the trooper's patrol car.

    Pike county District Attorney Raymond Tonkin said he had filed an array of charges against Frein including first degree murder, homicide of a law enforcement officer, attempted murder, possession of weapons of mass destruction and reckless endangerment.

    Noonan said Frein was in good condition and did not require medical attention: "He looked healthier than I would have expected.''

    He said officials believe Frein had been in the area around the hangar for some time. He said they were seeking a search warrant for the hangar and would look for indications Frein may have been using the hangar as a hideout.

    Noonan said there was no indication Frein was receiving assistance from anyone.

    The airport was the old Birchwood-Pocono Airpark, which was built in the early 1960s for a local resort and closed in 1998.

    Law enforcement sources told news organizations Frein surrendered peacefully.

    He was photographed in the back of a state police car.

    "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.

    The capture brought widespread relief in the Pocono Mountain communities near the search. Many had canceled Halloween observances out of fear he was on the loose. Outside the local state police station where he was taken, people waved American flags and signs thanking Pennsylvania State Police.

    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 Dickson, a 38-year-old father of two, and wound 31-year-old Trooper Alex Douglass during shift change. The exact motive for the shootings 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 was described as a self-trained survivalist, weapons enthusiast and expert marksman who role-played as a Serbian soldier. The FBI said he claimed to have fought with Serbians in Africa, and studied Russian and Serbian languages.

    The sniper, using a .308-caliber rifle, also fired at a civilian dispatcher as she tried to aid the victims, police said. The gunman fired four shots over about a minute and a half, video surveillance indicated.

    The shooter then vanished into the woods. The barracks, about 35 miles east of Scranton, not far from the borders of New York and New Jersey, sits on the edge of thousands of acres of state woodland in the Pocono Mountains.

    While searching the woods, authorities also recovered two empty rifle cases, military gear, flashlights, a black hooded sweatshirt, camouflage face paint and information on foreign embassies. A week later, authorities said they found an AK-47-style weapon, ammunition and other items they believe belonged to Frein. Police also found a U.S. Army manual titled "Sniper Training and Employment" in the suspect's bedroom at his parents' house.The first break in the case came a few days after the shooting when a neighbor walking his dog found a Jeep Cherokee partially submerged in a swampy area. The neighbor called 911 and authorities found Frein's driver's license, Social Security card, gaming permit and two spent .308 shell casings, according to a state police affidavit.

    In the weeks that followed, other gear, pipe bombs and ammunition linked to Frein was found. Several unconfirmed sightings were reported.

    Trackers 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, the last time in the head.

    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.

    During the search, State police Lt. Col. George Bivens had described Frein as a survivalist with strong anti-government feelings. He called him a coward.

    Noonan said Frien's violence appeared to be aimed at law enforcement in general rather than the individuals he shot.

    Frein had only a minor criminal record — 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.

    He belonged to a war-simulation group modeled after Cold War-era Eastern European troops. That apparently led to a film credit: He played the "2nd German soldier" in the 2007 movie Lustig, which relates the tale of a concentration camp survivor.

    Frein was a member of the Pocono Mountain High School rifle team. A police affidavit said Frein's father, retired Maj. E. Michael Frein, served in the Army for 28 years. He told investigators that he had trained his son in marksmanship — and that his son "doesn't miss."

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...ured/18203907/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #5
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Looking at the above photo, I wonder whether the US marshals and/or Pennsylvania state troopers beat the stuffing out of him.

  6. #6
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    LOL Moh, I was thinking the same thing because they said he surrendered quietly...wonder what happened?
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #7
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Quiet, bruised Eric Frein denied bail after brief arraignment on trooper killing charges

    Eric Frein's arraignment Friday morning in Pike County was short and to the point.

    A survivalist accused of ambushing two Pennsylvania state troopers, leaving one dead, Frein was captured on Thursday by U.S. marshals near an abandoned airplane hangar after a seven-week manhunt.

    The charges against Frein include first-degree murder and homicide of a law enforcement agent. He is accused of the Sept. 12 ambush at the Blooming Grove Township state police barracks, which left Cpl. Bryon Dickson dead and Trooper Alex Douglass wounded.

    Frein had little to say when he appeared for a 10-minute arraignment before Magisterial District Judge Shannon Muir.

    Frein appeared in court in an orange prison jumpsuit. He was flanked on each side by a state trooper.

    He had bruising around his face and cut on his nose that appeared to be a scab. He also had bruising around his eyes.

    Frein was most expressionless saying only, "Yes, I do" when the judge asked if he understood the charges against him.

    Those charges include murder in the first degree, criminal homicide of a law enforcement officer, assault, possession of weapons of mass destruction and some misdemeanors.

    Muir denied bail for Frein. He is being held in the Pike County Correctional Facility.

    http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...elated_stories
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  8. #8
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    U.S. Marshals' hunch led Eric Frein's capture at airport hangar

    Scott Malkowski, a task force commander with the U.S. Marshals Service, spied a figure moving from the woods toward an abandoned airplane hangar in the Pocono Mountains. Looking at his face, his black hat and fleece, and his height and weight, Malkowski was certain he had his man.

    "Suspect," he told the two operators by his side, and they fanned out on either side of their quarry, who had no idea he'd just been spotted. Hidden by tall grass, Malkowski moved stealthily toward his target, adrenaline coursing through his body.

    Eric Frein
    didn't stand a chance.

    The Marshals Service was one of several state and federal law enforcement agencies that took part in the intensive manhunt for Frein — the survivalist and marksman charged with killing Cpl. Bryon Dickson and critically wounding Trooper Alex Douglas — and wound up nabbing him on the 48th day of the search.

    The district attorney plans to seek the death penalty.

    Until his capture around 6 p.m. Thursday, Frein had some residents beginning to wonder if law enforcement was up to the task, given the rugged terrain of the Poconos and the evident skill with which he eluded dogs, thermal-imaging cameras and teams of heavily armed officers.

    Scott Kimball, though, never had a doubt.

    "We expected to find him," said Kimball, 48, a Virginia-based member of the U.S. Marshals' special operations group.

    On Thursday, Kimball was stationed in a command post while Malkowski, 44, and other members of the team — acting on a request from Pennsylvania State Police — worked to clear an abandoned resort. About two hours in, Malkowski and two others approached the hangar at the old Birchwood-Pocono Airpark.

    "We just had a hunch that if we were on the run, this is a place we would hide," he said.

    Once Frein was spotted, Malkowski and his team sneaked up on the fugitive. They were about 25 yards away when Frein finally realized he wasn't alone. Malkowski identified himself as law enforcement and ordered Frein, who was unarmed but had weapons in the hangar, to get on the ground.

    "What's your name?" Malkowski asked.

    Frein told him.

    He made no attempt to flee and didn't put up a fight.

    "He had nowhere to go. There is nothing he could've done," Malkowski said, adding: "From what I saw, he felt defeated because we'd won. We'd defeated him."

    After the marshals turned him over to state police, Frein was placed in Dickson's handcuffs and driven in Dickson's squad car to the Blooming Grove barracks.

    Frein, 31, could be seen with a gash on the bridge of his nose and a scrape over his left eye. Malkowski and Kimball said he suffered the injuries while marshals had him down on the pavement.

    Malkowski said his first thoughts upon Frein's capture were "relief for the community, for Pennsylvania State Police, and closure for Cpl. Dickson's family that he's finally in custody."

    Authorities said they were trying to reconstruct Frein's time on the run. They believe he broke into cabins and other places for food and shelter, and he evidently found time to shave — he had a neatly trimmed goatee when he was caught.

    State police Lt. Col George Bivens put the cost of the manhunt at about $10 million.

    Troopers questioned Frein, but authorities would not disclose what he told them or discuss a possible motive. Authorities have said Frein had expressed anti-law enforcement views online and to people who knew him.

    With the manhunt over, tactical experts like Malkowski and Kimball were getting ready to leave the northeastern Pennsylvania woods behind.

    Kimball's next mission? "Go home to see my kids."

    http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/brea..._eric_fre.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  9. #9
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Two veteran attorneys reportedly tapped for Eric Frein murder trial

    Suspected cop killer Eric Frein will reportedly get a legal team with decades of murder trial experience, including an attorney with extensive background in death penalty cases.

    The Philadelphia Inquirer reports
    that the Pike County Public Defender’s Office confirmed on Monday that a judge appointed Robert Bernathy and Michael Weinstein to represent Frein, who was captured Thursday after a 48-day manhunt in the Poconos Mountains.

    Weinstein said he met Monday with Frein in prison and was appointed at a rate of $178 per hour. He declined to elaborate, the newspaper reports. Bernathy did not return a call seeking comment.

    Frein, 31, qualifies for two court-appointed attorneys because he would face the death penalty if convicted of killing Cpl. Bryon Dickson and wounding Trooper Alex Douglass on Sept. 12.

    A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 12. The odds of a trial in Pike County, however, could be slim, according to one local attorney.

    Finding impartial jurors from a potential pool of roughly 60,000 residents could prove difficult, said Thomas Mincer, a former assistant public defender and defense attorney in the county.

    Mincer said he expects the trial to be moved to another county and that any county will likely have to ask for state assistance.

    “Any way you look at it, it’s going to end up costing Pike County at least $50,000,” he told the newspaper. “It’s going to be a real budget-buster.”

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/11/04...-murder-trial/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #10
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Federal flight charge against Eric Frein dismissed

    SCRANTON — The federal charge of flight to avoid apprehension against the man charged in the homicide of a state trooper Sept. 12 outside the Blooming Grove Township state police barracks has been dismissed.

    U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas M. Blewitt on Wednesday granted the government's motion to dismiss the charge against Eric Matthew Frein.

    The motion to dismiss notes Frein, 31, was captured Thursday and he is in the custody of state authorities. He is awaiting a preliminary hearing on Nov. 12.

    The FBI charged Frein on Sept. 16 during the early stages of a seven-week manhunt that ended in a field outside an abandoned airport hangar in a rural area near Tannersville.

    The charge alleged Frein did "knowingly and intentionally move and travel in interstate commerce with intent to avoid prosecution under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for a crime which is a felony."

    Although his apprehension occurred miles from the site of the ambush, there has been no indication Frein ever left the state.

    http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...l#incart_river
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

Page 1 of 8 123 ... LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •