The hard drive of a computer used by a suspected Pennsylvania cop-killer showed evidence of searches on how to avoid police manhunts, law enforcement technology and survival skills, state investigators revealed Friday.
Eric Frein has been on the run for two weeks now ever since he allegedly gunned down a state trooper and wounded another outside a police barracks in Blooming Grove on Sept. 12.
Lieutenant Colonel George Bivens said the hard drive from a computer Frein had access to indicate the suspect had been planning the attack for several years and intended to evade arrest, the Associated Press reported.
Authorities also searched on Friday a nearby abandoned hotel in Barrett Township named the Buck Hill Inn, where Frein may have visited after it closed, The Express-Times reported. Police said they are just clearing the 4,600-acre property and that the suspect has not been sighted there.
Frien's current location is believed to be confined within a 5-square-mile perimeter around his parents' home in Canadensis, police told the AP. He is believed to have stockpiles of food and supplies as he continues to use his survivalist skills to hide in the woods.
Frein, a trained marksmen, is suspected to be armed with at least one rifle.
"I suspect he wants to have a fight with the state police, but I think that involves hiding and running since that seems to be the way he operates," Bivens said according to the AP. "I expect that he'll be hiding and try to take a shot from some distance from a place of concealment, as he has done in the past."
Frein is said to have expressed hatred towards law enforcement, including a desire to shoot and kill police and commit mass murder.
"We are not intimidated and we will not leave," Bivens said, directly addressing Frein, The Express-Times reported. "We have a clear mission with specific objectives- protect the community, find you and bring you to justice."
