Search shifts; ambush suspect likely spotted

Associated Press

Police shifted their search and a northeastern Pennsylvania school district tightened security Monday after the suspect in a deadly police ambush was believed to have been spotted near one of its campuses.

A woman out for a walk Friday night saw a rifle-toting man with a mud-covered face near Pocono Mountain East High School in Swiftwater. State police believe the man was Eric Frein, who has eluded capture for more than a month despite an intense manhunt in the Pocono Mountains.

Authorities had been searching for Frein in the woods around his parents’ home in Canadensis but shifted their primary search area 5 or 6 miles to the southwest after Friday night’s sighting. Lt. Col. George Bivens said police have put a “tremendous amount of pressure on him” and likely forced him to move.

The high school — Frein’s alma mater — and all other schools in the Pocono Mountain School District were open Monday, but took extra precautions in light of the sighting.

Pennsylvania State Police did not recommend that schools close, district spokeswoman Wendy Frable said.