By Michael Iorfino
The Times-Tribune
BLOOMING GROVE, Pa. — Amid the rows of white wood lockers inside the Blooming Grove state police barracks, just one of the 52 doors is marked with something other than a number.
“Cpl. Bryon Dickson,” reads a plaque on the center of locker No. 7, where a few of the slain cop’s belongings remain stored. “You will always be our brother. EOW: 9/12/2014.”
Forty-eight days after a sniper killed Cpl. Dickson of Dunmore — his End of Watch — and injured Trooper Alex T. Douglass of Olyphant just outside the Pike County barracks, authorities captured suspect Eric Matthew Frein late Thursday at an abandoned Monroe County air park in Pocono Twp., about 20 miles south.
Now as the hundreds of troopers and federal agents who joined the massive manhunt return to their base stations, police at the Blooming Grove barracks face the reality of moving forward without a fellow trooper.
"(The capture) is definitely the first step toward finding out what the new normal is going to be for us,” said Lt. Christopher L. Paris, commander of the Troop R Blooming Grove Station. “We will always remember Cpl. Dickson. He will always have a locker here.”
Reflecting on the tragedy, Lt. Paris said the station’s troopers — just hours after the ambush — vowed to take Mr. Frein into custody using Cpl. Dickson’s handcuffs.
Even as the search extended into the thickly-wooded forest and rugged terrain, an officer always carried Cpl. Dickson’s handcuffs — relinquishing them to another trooper only when their shift ended.
Late Thursday, after United States marshals captured the 31-year-old fugitive at the abandoned Birchwood-Pocono Airport, an officer from the Blooming Grove station drove Cpl. Dickson’s cruiser to the scene and placed the slain trooper’s handcuffs on Mr. Frein, Lt. Paris said.
Two state troopers from the Blooming Grove station and Cpl. Derek Felsman, who eulogized Cpl. Dickson at the Sept. 18 funeral, rode in the No. 2 cruiser along with Mr. Frein. An officer parked the cruiser in the spot Cpl. Dickson left it the night of the shooting, and then the police escorted Mr. Frein to the front door of the Blooming Grove barracks, Lt. Paris said.
“I know every station commander across the state says they have the best station, but the people that work at Blooming Grove are outstanding and really pulled together through the initial hours of the tragedy,” he said. “I’ve found myself, many times, over the last 48 days in awe of the station.”
Lt. Paris said state troopers will do whatever they can to help support Cpl. Dickson’s wife, Tiffany, and two sons, Bryon III and Adam, as well as Trooper Douglass and his family.
Trooper Douglass, who spent more than a month at Geisinger Community Medical Center after the shooting, is now recovering at an Allied Services facility.
Lt. Paris tries to visit Trooper Douglass every day and said he called him late Thursday after news broke of Mr. Frein’s capture.
“He was very pleased with the arrest,” said Lt. Paris, who planned to visit him late Friday. “His parents are also very pleased.”
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