Residents return to homes as manhunt continues

Associated Press

CANADENSIS, Pa.

State police are lifting a shelter-in-place order for the area of northeastern Pennsylvania where a manhunt for the suspect in a trooper ambush is underway.

State police spokeswoman Maria Finn said in an emailed statement late Saturday that residents should use extreme caution as they move back into their homes in Barrett and Price Townships. She says police strongly recommend that residents stay inside and not enter the dense woods where officers are searching for Eric Frein, who is now on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.

“Our troopers are determined to find him and bring him to justice,” Finn said.

Authorities say Frein used a high-powered rifle to open fire from the woods near a state police barracks Sept. 12, killing Cpl. Bryon Dickson — a married ex-Marine with two sons — and wounding Trooper Alex Douglass.

Officers are trying to flush 31-year-old Frein out of the boggy woodlands near where he lived with his parents.

Frein — described by authorities as a self-taught survivalist with a grudge against police — has been on the run ever since, authorities said. But some who know him said he has not always played the loner, and the reason for his hatred of police remained a mystery.

Police weren’t offering any more information.