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Investigators fear the man suspected of killing one trooper and wounding a second is looking to strike again, the head of the Pennsylvania state police said on Tuesday.
Commissioner Frank Noonan spoke about the effort to capture Eric Frein after updating lawmakers at the state capitol, more than a month after the shootings.
“The thing that’s foremost on my mind is, what’s the cost if we don’t catch him? What’s the cost if he commits another crime?” Noonan said.
Noonan said his concerns about Frein are based on a review by behavioural scientists.
“We don’t think that he’s done this and that he’ll never do anything else,” Noonan said. “We believe he’s the type of individual that is looking to do more types of crimes like this if he has the opportunity. We can’t give him that opportunity.”
Noonan said the search for Frein in the rugged north-eastern Pennsylvania woods may be frustrating, but the suspect does not have access to many potential victims as long as he is bottled up there.
The manhunt is concentrated on a heavily forested area around his parents’ home in Canadensis, in the Pocono Mountains. Lieutenant Colonel George Bivens, who met with Noonan and the lawmakers, said on Tuesday he still believes Frein is in those woods.
Hundreds of state and federal law enforcement officials have been searching for Frein, who is charged with opening fire outside the Blooming Grove state police barracks on 12 September, killing Corporal Bryon Dickson and seriously wounding Trooper Alex Douglass.
Police have reported spotting Frein, but say they were too far away and could not get to him through the difficult terrain. They believe they have him contained in a five-square-mile area.
Frein, 31, has been described as a self-taught survivalist, expert marksman and war re-enactor who harbours a grudge against law enforcement. He is considered armed and dangerous.
In late September, trackers discovered a wooded campsite they say was used by Frein and found two pipe bombs, ammunition, food, clothing, and a journal that described the ambush.
