Video at Eric Frein hearing shows shooting of Pa. troopers

NEW MILFORD, Pa., Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Eric Frein was held for trial Monday after a prosecutor at his preliminary hearing played video of the killing of a Pennsylvania trooper.

The video was taken from surveillance cameras at the Blooming Grove barracks, where Frein is accused of ambushing troopers during shift change Sept. 12, killing Cpl. Bryon Dickson II and wounding Trooper Alex Douglass. While the video did not capture an image of the shooter, Cpl. Warren Grabher testified that shots continued to be fired as another trooper helped Douglass out of the barracks lobby.

Dickson was caught by the three cameras heading through the lobby on his way home from work and then falling after he was hit. Douglass, who was heading into the barracks to begin his shift, was wounded as he tried to help Dickson.

Spectators at the hearing, who included Dickson's widow, gasped as they watched the trooper's last moments. Frein showed little emotion.

Magisterial District Judge Shannon Muir ruled Monday afternoon that prosecutors have enough evidence to hold Frein for trial. He faces two counts of terrorism, one count each of first-degree murder and first-degree murder of a police officer and other charges and could face a death sentence if he is convicted.

Frein, a military enthusiast, became a suspect when his car was found in a retention pond. He was captured on Oct. 30, at an abandoned airstrip in Mount Pocono. The manhunt almost closed down the Pocono Mountains resort area in northeastern Pennsylvania.