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Suspected Pennsylvania cop killer Eric Frein nabbed

Survivalist Eric Frein is captured in a hangar at Pocono Mountain Airport.

By Mary Papenfuss
Accused cop killer Eric Frein is seen in a police vehicle in this ABC-TV 6 screen shot.
Accused cop killer Eric Frein is seen in a police vehicle in this ABC-TV 6 screen shot.

SWIFTWATER, Pa., Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Accused Pennsylvania cop killer Eric Frein has finally been captured by state troopers, ending a 48-day manhunt through the woods and towns of the Pocono Mountains, officials report.

It's been a "very good day," said a law enforcement source.

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Police have been hunting the self-trained survivalist since Sept. 12 when authorities say the 31-year-old gunman killed Pennsylvania state trooper Bryon Dickson and injured critically injured colleague Alex Douglass in an ambush on the Blooming Grove police barracks.

His dramatic capture was linked to a tip from a resident who reported spotting Frein in nearby Barrett Township. He was nabbed in a hangar in Pocono Mountain Airport in Mount Pocono.

Over the last weeks police on his trail found a diary, an AK-47, two homemade pipe bombs and various debris -- inexplicably including soiled diapers -- at campsites he had occupied. In a chilling recounting of the shootings in his diary police said Frein wrote first about Dickson: "Got a shot around 11 p.m. and took it. He dropped. I was surprised at how quick. I took a follow-up shot on his head, neck area. He was still and quiet after that. Another cop approached the one I just shot. As he went to kneel, I took a shot at him. His legs were visible and still."

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Frein is charged with the trooper shooting and two counts of manufacturing weapons of mass destruction for the shrapnel-packed pipe bombs, which were rigged to function as booby traps for pursing police, authorities believe.

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