How the cops nabbed Eric Frein

The intensive manhunt for Eric Frein, the survivalist and marksman charged in a deadly sniper attack outside Pennsylvania state police barracks, lasted 48 days and involved several state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Scott Malkowski, a task force commander with the US 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 in a deadly sniper attack outside the Blooming Grove state police barracks — and wound up nabbing him on the 48th day of the search.

Frein had an initial court appearance Friday morning and remained jailed without bail on first-degree murder and other charges in the Sept. 12 ambush that killed Cpl. Bryon Dickson and critically wounded Trooper Alex Douglass.

He did not have a lawyer and was not asked to enter a plea. A preliminary hearing was set for Nov. 12.

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."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to How the cops nabbed Eric Frein
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/1101/How-the-cops-nabbed-Eric-Frein
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe