Pennsylvania police spent $11 million on ambush suspect manhunt: report

[November 15, 2014]  (Reuters) - Pennsylvania State Police spent roughly $11 million on the weeks-long manhunt in the Pocono Mountains to capture a survivalist charged with shooting two state troopers and murdering one, local media reported on Friday.

The funds went mostly toward paying overtime and benefits for troopers hunting Eric Matthew Frein over the 48 days of the search, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, citing a police spokeswoman.

The tally excludes expenses paid by other law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service, in the weeks leading up to Frein's capture on Oct. 30, the newspaper said.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. State police representatives could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday night.

Frein, 31, eluded capture by hundreds of law enforcement officers after the Sept. 12 ambush outside a state police barracks in Blooming Grove during a late-night shift change. The attack killed Corporal Bryon Dickson, 38, and wounded Trooper Alex Douglass.

The apparent motive behind the sniper attack surfaced in court papers filed on Thursday, when prosecutors added two counts of terrorism to the criminal complaint against Frein.

"Our nation is far from what it was and what it should be," Frein wrote in a letter to his parents, according to the court papers. "There is so much wrong and on so many levels only passing through the crucible of another revolution can get us back the liberties we once had."

Frein, who was placed on the FBI's most-wanted list during the manhunt, has been held without bail on first-degree murder and related charges since his capture.

He has not yet entered a plea, and is due to appear in court for a preliminary hearing next month.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco, Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Simon Cameron-Moore)

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