Pennsylvania manhunt ends with capture of police ambush suspect

By Joe McDonald TANNERSVILLE Pa. (Reuters) - The survivalist suspected of killing a Pennsylvania state trooper and seriously wounding a second officer in a sniper attack in September was taken into custody after a seven-week manhunt, police said on Thursday. Eric Matthew Frein, 31, eluded capture by hundreds of law enforcement officers who had been searching for him since the Sept. 12 ambush of the troopers outside a state police barracks in Blooming Grove. The sniper attack killed Corporal Bryon Dickson, 38, and wounded Trooper Alex Douglass, 31. Frein's capture was announced in a brief statement by Pennsylvania State Police. No further details were immediately released, including where or how Frein was apprehended. Soon after the announcement, heavily armed police were gathered an abandoned resort in Tannersville, Pennsylvania, located in the Pocono Mountains. Local media reported, citing unnamed sources, that the suspect was found in an abandoned airplane hangar. Authorities have insisted for weeks that Frein, an expert marksman, was hiding in the Poconos, taking refuge in the state forests and game lands that blanket the region. There have been several reported sightings of him during the manhunt, but police said they were unable to get close enough to apprehend him. (Additional reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst; Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by Eric Walsh)