Accused Pennsylvania police shooter enters plea

MILFORD, Pa. - A survivalist accused of killing a state trooper and wounding another in a barracks ambush, then triggering a massive manhunt by going on the run for more than a month pleaded not guilty Thursday.

Eric Frein was arraigned at the Pike County Courthouse in Milford. The 31-year-old participated by video from the county jail and answered yes-or-no questions from his lawyer, who entered the not-guilty plea on his behalf.

Frein is charged with first-degree murder, terrorism and other offenses in the Sept. 12 ambush that killed Cpl. Bryon Dickson and severely wounded Trooper Alex Douglass outside the police barracks in Blooming Grove.

Frein led authorities on a 48-day manhunt in the rugged Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania before U.S. marshals captured him at an abandoned airplane hangar, more than 20 miles from the shooting scene, on Oct. 30.

District Attorney Ray Tonkin intends to seek the death penalty.

A filing by Tonkin this week notes that Dickson was slain while on duty, and it alleges that Frein killed Dickson while committing other felonies and that he "knowingly created a grave risk of death" for Douglass and another person at the scene.

Authorities have said Frein confessed to what he described as an assassination designed to "wake people up" and result in a change in government and the restoration of liberties.