Best views, weather, etc. How to test them 👓 SC, Ala. sites look back Betty Ford honored
NEWS
Eric Frein

Pa. schools close in manhunt for accused cop killer

John Bacon
USA TODAY
FBI agents prepare to patrol the woods on Lower Swiftwater Road on Oct. 18 during a massive manhunt for Eric Frein in Swiftwater, Pa.

Schools were closed Tuesday across a vast expanse of rural northeastern Pennsylvania where the manhunt for an accused cop killer was heating up after reports of at least two possible sightings in recent days.

The Pocono Mountain School District posted an alert on its website closing its 10 schools just hours before classes were to begin. The previous afternoon, a Pocono Mountain Regional Police officer reported seeing a man dressed in green less than a half-mile from the district's Swiftwater campus, which includes a high school, junior high and elementary school.

The officer "lost visual contact with the man through the woods. A search of the area was conducted but no one was located," Trooper Tom Kelly said Tuesday.

Kelly said classes were canceled due to "police activity in the area of the school."

The object of the manhunt is Eric Frein, described by authorities as an anti-government survivalist with an inexplicable grudge against law enforcement. Frein, 31, is accused of an ambush Sept. 12 at a State Police barracks during a shift change that left one officer dead and another seriously wounded. A dispatcher who ran to their aid was driven back by gunfire.

The shooting took place in Blooming Grove, a rural hamlet about 25 miles from the Canadensis home where Frein lived with his parents. The search target area has moved multiple times as sightings are reported, most recently from an area around that home to an area several miles south.

The result has been communities on edge across scores of square miles.

Monday's possible sighting came three days after a woman said she saw man with a rifle and his face covered with mud, near Pocono Mountain East High School — Frein's alma mater.

The woman, who declined to be identified, told WNEP-TV the rifle had a scope but that the man did not raise the gun. She said she saw him for about 30 seconds before running away.

Police said they are taking the woman's statement seriously, noting that she was less than 30 yards from the man. Not all the tips work out so well. Last Thursday, two local homeowners reported finding blood splatters outside their residences. The blood was determined not to be Frein's.

Featured Weekly Ad