Eric Matthew Frein | |
---|---|
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive | |
Reward | $175,000 between FBI and PA government [1] |
Description | |
Born | New Jersey, U.S. | May 3, 1983
Nationality | American |
Race | Caucasian |
Gender | Male |
Occupation | Cashier |
Status | |
Convictions | 9 charges, including first-degree murder [a] |
Penalty | Death (de jure) |
Status | On death row [b] |
Added | September 18, 2014 |
Caught | October 30, 2014 |
Number | 503 |
Captured | |
Eric Matthew Frein (born May 3, 1983) is an American domestic terrorist [2] and murderer, convicted and sentenced to death for the 2014 Pennsylvania State Police barracks attack [3] in which he shot and killed one State Trooper, and seriously injured another. A letter to his parents made it clear that he hoped to spark a revolution by his actions. [2]
After being identified as a suspect three days after the shooting, Frein was the target of an extensive manhunt before being captured on the night of October 30, 2014, at an abandoned airport 48 days after the attack. [4] [5] He was convicted of the ambush in 2017 and sentenced to death.
Eric Matthew Frein was born on May 3, 1983, in New Jersey. He attended Pocono Mountain High School in Pennsylvania, where he was a top scorer on the school's rifle team. [6] Police described Frein as a "self-taught survivalist" with a grudge against law enforcement personnel. [7] A report on Frein cited his friends saying that, as an Eagle Scout, [8] he was repudiated by the chief executive officer of the Boy Scouts of America Minsi Trails Council at the time, where Frein had worked. [9] Frein also worked at a Lewis' supermarket. [10]
Frein attended East Stroudsburg University for one semester. [11] [12] He also attended Northampton Community College (the Bethlehem Township campus and the Monroe County campus) as a chemistry major. [13]
In 2004, Frein was charged with burglary and grand larceny after he was accused of stealing items from vendors at a World War II reenactment in Odessa, New York. He failed to attend his trial and was arrested in Pennsylvania as a fugitive from justice. [13] In lieu of $5,000 bail, Frein was held for 109 days in a county jail in New York on a felony charge before pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of possession of stolen property to be sentenced to time served and payment of $3,120 restitution. [14] [15]
In 2008, Frein founded Istočni Vuk (meaning "Eastern Wolf" in Serbo-Croatian) whose Myspace page [16] pictured Frein engaged in recreational military simulations dressed in an Army of Republika Srpska uniform. Though he reenacted in a variety of roles, Frein preferred to portray Bosnian Serb soldiers. Fellow reenactors believed this was not based on ideology, but the way that the ragtag look of an ex-Yugoslav field jacket stood out from others. Pennsylvania State Police also believe that Frein made several trips to Southeast Europe. The Eastern Wolves were one of several groups competing in "tacticals" under the umbrella organization "Red Alliance", using replica airsoft rifles with plastic BBs. Frein was viewed as a serious reenactor with a deep knowledge of history; he was meticulous in many details, such as uniforms, but not overly obsessive in others—once even choosing a cheaper Chinese-made replica airsoft rifle over one made in Yugoslavia. Although he looked down on casual participants playing "cowboys and Indians", he was reported to have a sense of humor. [15]
Frein's reenactment landed him several jobs in the film industry. He played a non-speaking role in Lustig, a 16-minute anti-Nazi film where he portrayed a German soldier at Auschwitz. In 2009, he gave technical direction in a World War I documentary being made by Jeremiah Hornbaker, who later offered him several other jobs that he turned down. [15]
In July 2014, Frein told Hornbaker, friends, and parents that he was moving to Delaware to work at a chemical company. Police speculate that he might have taken this time to make the preparations that later would allow him to survive and evade capture. [15]
At the time of the attack on the state troopers, Frein was living with his parents at their home in Canadensis in Barrett Township, Pennsylvania. [17] [18] [19]
During a shift change late at night on September 12, 2014, outside the Trooper barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police in the Pocono Mountains in the Township of Blooming Grove, Pennsylvania, Frein opened fire with a .308-caliber rifle, [20] killing Corporal Bryon K. Dickson II, a 38-year-old Pennsylvania State Police Trooper, and seriously wounding Trooper Alex Douglass. [13] [15] [21]
Three days after the shootings, a man walking his dog found a suspicious looking 2001 Jeep Cherokee partially submerged in a retaining pond or drainage basin in a swamp near the intersection of Pennsylvania Route 402 and U.S. Route 6, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) away from the crime scene. [15] [21] [22] The vehicle was determined to belong to Frein's parents and evidence found in the vehicle included Frein's Social Security card, information about foreign embassies, camouflage paint, and bullet casings matched to the shooting. This led authorities to identify Frein as their only suspect. [20] [23] On September 16, 2014, a criminal complaint against Frein was docketed in the U.S. District Court in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and the court issued an arrest warrant the next day. [24]
Authorities speculated that Frein, driving with his lights off on Pennsylvania Route 402, had failed to see a T-junction, lost control of the car, and drove into the swamp, and then may have traveled 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 km) on foot to Canadensis, Pennsylvania, where his parents live. [25]
The police manhunt grew from nearly 200 officers by September 17 [23] to 400 officers by September 22 [32] to nearly 1,000 on September 24. [33] Law enforcement officers included local police, state police forces from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut [34] as well as FBI, U.S. Marshals Service; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. [32] Though tracking dogs were regarded as a valuable tool, particularly on damp, calm days when scent dissipates most slowly, Frein successfully evaded them using "water crossings and terrain conditions." [35] [36]
Equipment included numerous police vehicles, [37] particularly armored BearCats. [25] The FBI displayed Frein's image and the number of a state police hotline using hundreds of digital billboards in Pennsylvania and five other states. [37] [38] [39] The total cost of the manhunt came to $11.9 million. [40]
Police believed they saw Frein several times during the manhunt, but each time were unable to approach directly due to the rugged terrain of the area, which allowed Frein to slip away. They believed Frein was taunting them, and Lt. Colonel George Bivens told reporters, "I almost think this is a game to him." [33] A colleague from the MilSim group "Red Alliance" suggested that "If he's re-enacting anyone, it's Rambo from the very first movie," referring to the character of John Rambo in First Blood . [41] The difficulty of capturing Frein was compared to that of finding other survivalist outdoorsmen such as Eric Rudolph, Jason McVean, and Robert William Fisher, whose special training helped them elude police for years. [42] Pennsylvania State Troopers were not issued with "hard" body-armor during the early days of the search, causing concern over those searching and highlighting a concern for the safety of those in the manhunt. [43]
Local resident James Tully, who bears some resemblance to Frein and who walks to work in the area, says he was stopped more than 20 times by officers searching for Frein. He claims one officer pointed a rifle at him and forced him to the ground, leaving him with bruised ribs and in fear that he would be shot. [44]
Frein was captured by U.S. Marshals' Special Operations Group in an open field near an unused airport hangar at Birchwood-Pocono Airpark, an abandoned airfield [45] approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) ENE of Tannersville, on October 30, 2014, 48 days after the shooting. [46] At the time of his arrest, he was not armed, [47] but a .308-caliber rifle and a pistol were recovered. Due to some confusion over which airport Frein was hiding at, some police officers erroneously searched for him at the Pocono Mountains Municipal Airport, which is about 10 miles from the Birchwood-Pocono Airpark and is still in use. [48]
Frein was arrested without an altercation. [49] [50] Although he did not resist arrest, he suffered a cut to the bridge of his nose, as well as a scrape over his left eye and bruises to his cheeks and eyes. [51] [52] A Pennsylvania State Police spokesman said these injuries occurred while he was on the run, [53] [54] but the U.S. Marshals said this occurred while police had him down on the pavement during his arrest. [52] [55] According to Scott Malkowski, one of a dozen Marshals who took down Frein, standard procedure is "Never have a fugitive look at you", and because Frein went down in a position with head up looking at the officers, they pushed him to a face-down position, causing the scrapes in the process.
Symbolically, Frein was restrained after the arrest using the handcuffs of deceased officer Bryon Dickson [56] [57] and taken to the barracks where the attack occurred in the back seat of Dickson's car. [58]
The day after his capture, he was charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder in the shooting that killed Dickson and wounded Douglass. [59] Frein was charged with murder of the first degree, criminal attempt to commit murder of the first degree, murder of a law enforcement officer of the first degree, criminal attempt to commit murder of a law enforcement officer of the first degree, assault of a law enforcement officer, two counts of terrorism under 18 Pa C.S.A. 2717(a)2 and 3, two counts of weapons of mass destruction under 18 Pa C.S.A. 2716(a), discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, possessing instruments of crime, and recklessly endangering another person. [60] [61] [62] He pleaded not guilty to all charges during his video arraignment on January 29, 2015. Prosecutors said they intended to seek a death sentence. [63]
Before Frein was tried, a Pike County judge had to determine if information about a State Police internal affairs investigation involving witnesses could be released to Frein's attorneys. [64]
In June 2016, it was determined that Frein's trial would be heard by an imported jury from Chester County due to the extensive pretrial publicity in Pike County. This would be the first time that a Pike County case would be heard by a jury impaneled from another county since the 1980s. [65] Also in June 2016, Pike County Judge Gregory Chelak denied a motion made by Frein's attorneys to bar prosecutors from seeking a death sentence in the case. Chelak rejected Frein's claim that capital punishment was unconstitutional. [66] [67]
In September 2017, Trooper Bryon Dickson's widow, Tiffany Dickson, filed a lawsuit against Frein's parents alleging they missed warning signs about their son's behavior and that Frein's father ”psychologically manipulated” him into adopting militantly anti-government and anti-police views. [68]
On April 19, 2017, Frein was found guilty on all charges [69] [70] and on April 26, the jury recommended a death sentence. The following day, Frein was formally sentenced to death by lethal injection. [71] Frein is currently being held at SCI Somerset, a medium security prison in Pennsylvania. [72]
Blooming Grove Township is a township in Pike County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 5,421 at the 2020 census.
Ralph James "Bucky" Phillips is a convicted murderer from Western New York arrested on September 8, 2006, by the Pennsylvania State Police. A warrant was issued for his arrest following the shooting of three New York State troopers, one of whom died from his wounds.
In law enforcement, a manhunt is an extensive and thorough search for a wanted and dangerous fugitive involving the use of police units, technology, and help from the public.
Russel Timoshenko was a 23-year-old New York Police Department (NYPD) police officer who was shot on July 9, 2007, and died five days later, after pulling over a stolen BMW automobile in New York City's Crown Heights, Brooklyn, neighborhood. After a four-day manhunt that stretched across three states, all three suspects Dexter Bostic, Robert Ellis and Lee Woods were eventually apprehended and convicted—two of murder, and the third for weapons possession. At his widely attended funeral, Timoshenko was posthumously promoted to the rank of Detective. The case garnered national media attention because the weapons used were all illegally obtained handguns. This sparked widespread debate over gun control laws in New York City, and over the process by which firearms are traced by police departments.
On November 29, 2009, four police officers of Lakewood, Washington were fatally shot at the Forza coffee shop, located at 11401 Steele Street #108 South in the Parkland unincorporated area of Pierce County, Washington, near Tacoma. A gunman, later identified as Maurice Clemmons, entered the shop, shot the officers while they worked on laptops, and fled the scene with a single gunshot wound in his torso. After a massive two-day manhunt that spanned several nearby cities, an officer recognized Clemmons near a stalled car in south Seattle. When he refused orders to stop, he was shot and killed by a Seattle Police Department officer.
State Correctional Institution – Somerset is a medium-security, all-male correctional facility located outside Somerset, Pennsylvania, about 70 miles (110 km) southeast of Pittsburgh, and about 5 miles (8.0 km) off the Somerset Interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. In March 2024, 44 of Pennsylvania's death row inmates were moved to Somerset. They were previously at SCI Phoenix, which continues to house other death penalty prisoners.
Nicholas Lindsey is a Florida man convicted of murder in the first degree of a law enforcement officer from the St. Petersburg Police Department.
On January 23, 1991, in Garrison, Texas, police officer Constable Darrell Lunsford pulled over a suspicious vehicle. Inside the vehicle were three men transporting marijuana from Texas to Illinois. After Lunsford requested to search the trunk of the vehicle, the men exited the car, tackled Lunsford, beat, stabbed, and shot him after a struggle. They then drove off after killing him. Lunsford's dashboard camera in his police cruiser recorded the murder. Footage of the murder is used in law enforcement training. The date of the murder has been described as one of the most infamous dates in the history of Texas law enforcement.
Christopher Jordan Dorner was a former officer of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) who, beginning on February 3, 2013, committed a series of killings against the LAPD in Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County in the U.S. state of California. The victims were law enforcement officers and the daughter of a retired police captain. Dorner killed four people and wounded three others. On February 12, Dorner killed himself after a shootout with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department deputies in the San Bernardino Mountains.
Troy LaFerrara was a Port Trevorton, Pennsylvania man murdered on November 11, 2013. Miranda Barbour and her husband, Elytte Barbour, were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in September 2014. The murder is notable because of the unsubstantiated claim by one of the killers, Miranda Barbour, that she had murdered at least 22 other people, triggering worldwide news coverage of the case.
The Birchwood-Pocono Airpark is a former airport located in Tannersville, Pennsylvania that operated alongside the Birchwood Resort from 1968 until its closure in 1996.
Francis (Frank) Noonan was formerly State Police Commissioner for the Pennsylvania State Police. Noonan began his career in 1971 as an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Following his retirement from the FBI in 1998, Noonan was appointed as Northeast Regional Director for the Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation. After 11 years as Regional Director, Noonan was promoted to Chief of Criminal Investigations for the Office of Attorney General in July 2009.
In the late evening of January 7, 2016, in a sudden attack with no precipitating event, Edward Archer rushed towards and shot Philadelphia police officer Jesse Hartnett while he drove his patrol car, inserting the gun into the window of the car and firing at point blank range. Despite being shot multiple times in the left arm, Hartnett was able to exit his car and shoot the fleeing suspect. Later in the hospital, Archer claimed he pledged allegiance to ISIS. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated the shooting as a terrorist attack.
On September 12, 2014, during a shift change at the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Blooming Grove Township, two state troopers were shot with a .308 caliber rifle. One trooper died at the scene and another was taken to a hospital where he recovered. Eric Frein was identified by the police as the only suspect in the case, and led the police on a weeks-long manhunt. He was eventually captured at an abandoned airport hangar on October 30, and charged with terrorism, murder, and attempted murder. Frein was convicted of all charges in April 2017, and subsequently sentenced to death.
In the early hours of November 2, 2016, Des Moines Police Department officer Anthony Beminio and Urbandale Police Department officer Justin Martin were killed in separate "ambush-style" shootings in and near Des Moines, Iowa. The perpetrator in both shootings, identified as 46-year-old Scott Michael Greene of Urbandale, Iowa, was apprehended by police hours later. Greene pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life without parole on May 20, 2017.
On November 20, 2016, Benjamin Marconi, a detective with the San Antonio Police Department, was shot to death in San Antonio, Texas. In the shooting, a motorist stopped his car, got out, and shot and wounded Marconi while the latter was sitting in his marked patrol car in front of the department's headquarters, writing a ticket for another driver during a routine traffic stop.
Ronil Singh was a Fijian-born American police officer who was shot and killed on the morning of December 26, 2018, in Newman, California, by a driver he had pulled over on suspicion of driving while drunk. Paulo Mendoza, a 31-year-old Mexican illegal immigrant, was arrested three days later. Prior to his arrest for the murder of Singh, Mendoza was found guilty of multiple offenses.
In late May and early June 2020, two ambush-style attacks occurred against security personnel and law enforcement officers in California. The attacks left two dead and injured three others.
Danilo Souza Cavalcante is a Brazilian national accused of murder in the Brazilian state of Tocantins and a convicted murderer in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. After originally being wanted by Brazilian authorities for his alleged role in the shooting death of Valter Júnior Moreira dos Reis in 2017, Cavalcante fled to the United States. Four years later, in April 2021, Cavalcante was arrested for fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend, Deborah Brandão.