Accused cop killer captured after 48 days; found at abandoned airport

TOBYHANNA, Penn. -- After nearly seven weeks on the run, suspected cop killer Eric Matthew Frein is in custody, Pennsylvania State Police spokeswoman Connie Devens said Thursday.


"I can confirm that we have taken Eric Frein into custody. Further information will be released at a later time. No further information will be released or confirmed at this time," she said in an email to reporters.

According to a local government official briefed on the matter, Frein was caught at an abandoned airport between Henryville and Tannersville.

A U.S. Marshal's Service special operations team tracked Frein to the abandoned airport while it was in process of clearing the area, according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the capture.

Its work, that source said, was also aided by intelligence and eyewitness accounts gathered throughout the course of the manhunt.

Frein was armed with two guns when he was arrested, according to another law enforcement source. One was a pistol and the other a rifle, the source said.

A separate law enforcement official told CNN that knives were recovered from Frein's hiding place, and that authorities are currently searching the area for more weapons.

Frein, 31, is suspected in the September 12 ambush shooting that left Cpl. Bryon Dickson dead and Trooper Alex T. Douglass wounded outside the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Blooming Grove.

"Let me assure everybody here ... justice will be served," Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said Thursday night at a news conference about Frein's capture.

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for Frein, Pike County District Attorney Raymond Tonkin told reporters.

The suspect is now sitting in a cell at the same barracks outside which the two officers were ambushed, authorities said. He was cuffed with Cpl. Dickson's handcuffs, officials said.