As the search for Eric Frein carries on in the Poconos, US authorities once again said they were confident of finding the survivalist and military buff accused of fatally shooting one state trooper and seriously wounding a second.
But Monday, the 11th day of the hunt, unfolded like all the other days.
Hopes of resolution were repeatedly raised by rumours and dashed by facts, and frustration mounted among the spooked and rattled residents of the broad search area in northern Monroe County.
The nature of the pursuit took on an extra edge with a morning announcement over police radios that the search teams - consisting of tactical units, troopers and federal agents - were authorised to kill Frein if he is identified and refuses to surrender.
It was not immediately clear whether those rules of engagement were new.
At a news conference hours after that broadcast, State Police Lieutenant Colonel George Bivens said he believes searchers are closing in on Frein, who is accused of killing Corporal Bryon Dickson and seriously wounding Trooper Alex Douglass outside the Blooming Grove barracks in rural Pike County on the night of Sept. 12.
"The search area is narrowing," Bivens said. "I do believe that we are close."
Little concrete news has emerged from the forests where hundreds of officers have been pushing implacably across rugged terrain rich with hiding places.
Police vehicles, including the armoured BearCats used by tactical squads, moved up and down the mountain byways. Helicopters swooped and hovered. Police radios occasionally crackled with warnings - Frein might be hiding in the treetops and wearing body armour - and with possible sightings. One resident reported seeing a man covering himself with leaves in a yard.
Police have investigated countless such reports since the ambush-style shooting, which occurred during a shift change at the barracks.
Dickson, 38, was hit by at least one bullet from a .308-calibre rifle and died at the scene. Douglass, 31, has undergone several surgeries at Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton and is recovering.
Investigators believe the shooting, and subsequent escape into familiar woods near his home, were planned "extensively for months, and maybe years", and included "surveilling the station" where the troopers were shot.
Frein was linked to the ambush when police examined evidence from his parents' Jeep Cherokee, which a man walking his dog found last Monday in a pond a few kilometres north of the shooting scene.
Police said they believe Frein crashed into the pond because he was driving with his lights off and didn't notice he had reached a T-intersection at the north end of Route 402. Frein may have covered 32km on foot after ditching the vehicle, they said.
Frein has been characterised as a self-styled survivalist who has taken part in World War II and Cold War battle re-enactments, and who has expressed a hostility toward law enforcement officers. He also is considered a skilled marksman.
In his flight, Frein left behind an AK-47 style rifle, magazines and small bag of ammo that were "partially concealed" or "hidden for possible future use", police said.
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