Cops: Ambush on Troopers Was Planned for Months

Suspect Eric Frein continues to elude FBI and police during massive manhunt
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 22, 2014 3:00 AM CDT
Cops: Ambush on Troopers Was Planned for Months
FILE - This undated PennDOT identification photo released in this Friday Sept. 16, 2014 file photo by the Pennsylvania State Police shows Eric Matthew Frein, 31, of Canadensis, Penn., being sought in Friday's shooting that left one trooper dead and another critically wounded at a state police barracks...   (AP Photo/PennDOT via Pennsylvania State Police, Filr)

The man suspected of shooting two Pennsylvania State troopers 10 days ago may have been planning both the shooting and his escape for months if not years, police say, perhaps explaining why he's been able to elude captivity for so long. Even the clues uncovered yesterday in the huge manhunt—including an AK-47-style weapon, ammo, and other items believed to belong to suspect Eric Frein, now on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list—may have been stored by Frein ahead of the ambush, reports NBC News.

"He has been planning and preparing for a confrontation," an official says. "To get him ready for that shooting and also for his escape from the situation." Frein, who has been on the run in a heavily wooded area in the Pocono Mountains, is from the area and is known to be an anti-government war simulator whose father, a retired Army major, trained his son in marksmanship and told investigators he "doesn't miss," reports USA Today. Shortly before Frein allegedly shot the troopers with a high-powered .308-caliber rifle from the woods across the road, wounding one and killing a father of two, he shaved the sides of his head for a Mohawk-style stripe down the middle in anticipation of the attack, a police official says. (More Eric Frein stories.)

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