Survivalist who ambushed police seeks to avoid death penalty

FILE – In this Jan. 5, 2015 file photo, Eric Frein is led away by Pennsylvania State Police Troopers at the Pike County Courthouse after his preliminary hearing in Milford, Pa. Frein, who is charged in the fatal ambush of a state police barracks, told authorities on the night of his capture, “I did this. No one else did,” according to a videotaped interview played for jurors at his capital murder trial on Tuesday, April 11, 2017. (Butch Comegys/The Times & Tribune via AP, File)

MILFORD, Pa. (AP) — A survivalist who shot and killed a Pennsylvania State Police trooper and injured another in an ambush at their barracks will now fight for his own life following his conviction on capital murder charges.

Eric Frein (freen) was convicted Wednesday of all 12 charges he faced more than two years after targeting the state police in a late-night sniper attack.

The focus now shifts to the impact of Frein’s crimes. He killed Cpl. Bryon Dickson, a 38-year-old Marine veteran, and critically wounded Trooper Alex Douglass, who was shot as he came to the aid of his mortally wounded comrade and suffers from a range of health problems.

Prosecutors will ask the same jury that convicted Frein to send him to death row. The penalty phase begins Thursday afternoon.