Pennsylvania police find gun believed to be Eric Frein's in woods

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/21/pennsylvania-police-gun-eric-frein-manhunt

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The suspected gunman in a fatal ambush on a Pennsylvania police barracks was still on the loose on Sunday, as authorities said they believed he had been planning his assault and escape for “months or years”.

Lieutenant Colonel George Bivens, deputy commander of operations for the state police, said trackers engaged in the manhunt for Eric Frein had discovered items hidden or abandoned in the woods, including a gun they believe he had been carrying while on the run.

Bivens said authorities did not yet know if the gun was used in the shooting.

Frein, 31, is accused of killing Pennsylvania state trooper Bryon Dickson with a high-powered rifle outside a rural barracks in the Pocono Mountains. Another trooper was wounded in the ambush that touched off a manhunt that has so far lasted nine days across 200 to 250 square miles of deeply wooded landscape.

At a press conference on Sunday afternoon, Bivens said: “We are talking to a lot of people, looking at a lot of information, and that confirms to us that there was significant planning.”

He said police had received several reports of sightings. “Each of those are being investigated and followed up,” he said. “The Pennsylvania state police has received hundreds of tips over the past week, many offering credible information.”

Police lifted a shelter-in-place order for parts of Monroe County on Friday, but advised that “people in the affected area stay in their homes and do not go into the woods where law enforcement is searching”.

Bivens said he was confident Frein was still within the police search area. “There is no doubt we are pushing him hard. He is losing items,” he said.

Schools have been closed in the wake of the shooting. Bivens said the decision to reopen was down to school districts. “I think they have to make an individual decision,” he said.

“I will tell you, as we’ve said in the past, we have every reason to believe that Frein is focused on law enforcement and specifically the state police. There is no indication that he is a danger to school children of somebody else in the public.”

Frein was put on the FBI’s most wanted list last week. He is described as 6ft 1in and 165lbs. State police said he had cut his hair into a wide Mohawk in preparation for the attack. He was also described as a heavy smoker.

An anti-law enforcement survivalist and cold war reenactor who has been known to wear authentic Serbian uniforms, in the past Frein has only had minor brushes with the law. Bivens said there was prior evidence of a deep-seated grudge against the police.

“We are aware of some conversations … it’s clear that he has been planning this for some time. I really don’t want to go beyond that with specifics about what he has told other people but it is very clear to us that he has held these beliefs, I just think other people didn’t think he would act on this.”

Bivens said that bow hunting season was about to begin and asked hunters to refrain from going into the search area until Frein was captured.