NORTH CODORUS, Pa.—A suspected stalker armed with a rifle hid inside his ex-girlfriend’s home in the rolling farmland of southern Pennsylvania and ambushed police officers who came to arrest him, killing three of them in a shootout, a prosecutor said Thursday.
Two other officers were seriously wounded before police shot the suspect to death in a hail of gunfire that capped a 15-hour ordeal after a trail camera captured an image of the suspect, armed with a rifle, peering through a scope into the house Tuesday night.
How the Shooting Hnfolded
The ex-girlfriend and her mother called the police and then fled the house for their safety after officers dispatched Tuesday night were unable to find him there. Police didn’t find him at his own home so arrived back at the house Wednesday afternoon.
Using a drone, six officers scoured the property, including farm buildings, before they noticed the door to the home was unlocked—even though the ex-girlfriend and her mother had locked it before fleeing.
Four plainclothes detectives from the Northern York County Regional Police Department wearing bulletproof vests opened the door and were immediately fired on by the suspect, 24-year-old Matthew James Ruth, who was carrying a rifle with a suppressor, York County District Attorney Tim Barker said.
Barker said he believed that Ruth had planned to ambush his ex-girlfriend before the detectives walked in.
Ruth fired numerous rounds, killing three of the officers at the door and seriously wounding the fourth, Barker said. A gunfight then ensued between Ruth and two officers outside. Ruth wounded a York County sheriff’s deputy before he and another Northern York County Regional officer shot the gunman to death by the road, Barker said.
Detective Sgt. Cody Becker, Detective Mark Baker and Detective Isaiah Emenheiser were killed, he said.
“Each of these men represented the best of policing. They served with professionalism, dedication and courage. They were leaders within our agency, committed to protecting this community and standing beside their follow officers,” Chief Dave Lash said.
All three slain officers were long-time veterans of the nearly 70-officer force, with almost six decades of combined service. Baker, 53, had served 21 years after spending time as a police officer in Philadelphia; Becker, 39, had served 16 years; and Emenheiser, 43, had served 20 years.
The wounded detective and sheriff’s officer remained hospitalized, one of whom is in critical but stable condition Thursday.
What Happened Before the Shootout
When the ex-girlfriend’s pickup truck mysteriously caught fire one night in August, she suspected Ruth was behind it, but she asked police not to investigate, Barker said.
Instead, she and her mother put up the trail camera and, nearly a month later, called police when they discovered an image of him wearing camouflage and peering into the house through what Barker called a scope-like device.
With misdemeanor warrants for his arrest, police went looking for Ruth.
Investigators went to Ruth’s home in Hanover, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from where the officers were killed, and talked to relatives earlier Wednesday, Barker said. He wasn’t there, so they left to try the ex-girlfriend’s home again.
Barker said he couldn’t immediately say how Ruth got into the ex-girlfriend’s house, but he said Ruth had “carefully surveilled the entire residence and the outbuilding areas” and even shot and killed the family dog, a black Labrador, after he entered the home.
Detectives returned to Hanover after the shooting and left with several bags of potential evidence, neighbor Rose Miller said. She didn’t know Ruth well, but remembered him working on Boy Scout fundraisers.
Community Mourns
On Thursday night, a couple hundred people gathered for a vigil honoring the officers at a church in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, some wiping away tears as pastors led prayers and hymns and a woman sang “Amazing Grace.” Community members wrote messages on stones and arranged them under a table displaying five lit candles.
“We need to do better as a society,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said Wednesday evening. “We need to help the people who think that picking up a gun, picking up a weapon is the answer to resolving disputes.”
It was one of the state’s deadliest days for law enforcement this century, matching the toll from a shooting in 2009 when three officers were ambushed by a domestic violence suspect sporting a bulletproof vest.
Community members held American flags and saluted as police and emergency vehicles formed a procession to the coroner’s office, and people left flowers outside the slain officers’ headquarters.
The confrontation unfolded on a rural road in North Codorus, about 46 miles north of Baltimore. Neighbor Dirk Anderson heard “quite a few” shots from his home across the street and wondered what was happening. Then he saw a helicopter and police arrive.
In all, some 30 police vehicles arrived, blocking off roads bordered by a barn, a goat farm and soybean and corn fields.
“It’s strange walking down this road now and seeing all these cars and knowing what happened here,” said Bryan Rice, who lives nearby and regularly walks the road with his wife.
Barker declined to ponder the gunman’s “full profile,” but said one thing was apparent.
“There is one motive though that is clear for everything. And that is the hateful scourge of domestic violence,“ he said. ”That is what brought us here. That is what brought law enforcement here.”
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