NORTH CODORUS, Pa. (AP) — The gunman who killed three officers and wounded two more in Pennsylvania before he was killed by police was a 24-year-old being sought on stalking and trespassing charges, according to court documents and law enforcement.
The charges against Matthew James Ruth were filed Wednesday, when police returned to a farm in rural York County to find him.
The law enforcement official who identified Ruth as the shooting suspect spoke
to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Police had been to the scene the day before, then returned Wednesday afternoon to search for Ruth, who was also charged with loitering and prowling at night.
The killings Wednesday matched the state’s deadliest day for law enforcement this century, when three officers were ambushed in 2009 by a domestic violence suspect sporting a bulletproof vest. Families of the officers in York County, and the community at large in the rolling farmland of southern Pennsylvania, were left to grieve and search for answers a day later.
“We need to do better as a society,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said. “We need to help the people who think that picking up a gun, picking up a weapon is the answer to resolving disputes.”
More details on the domestic situation that led police to the farm were expected to emerge Thursday. The two hospitalized officers remained in stable condition. Investigators were expected to examine several locations potentially linked to the crime.
As news of the tragedy spread, community members held American flags and saluted as police and emergency vehicles formed a procession to the coroner’s office. It was one of the deadliest days for Pennsylvania police this century. Police departments across the region mourned their colleagues on social media, while people left flowers at the headquarters of the Northern York Regional Police Department.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi called the violence against police “a scourge on our society.”
The confrontation unfolded on a rural road in south-central Pennsylvania, not far from Maryland. Neighbor Dirk Anderson heard “quite a few” shots from his home across the street from the shooting and wondered what was happening. Then he saw a helicopter and police arrive.
In the end, some 30 police vehicles blocked off roads bordered by a barn, a goat farm and soybean and corn fields. The area, North Codorus Township, sits about 115 miles (185 km) west of Philadelphia.
Another officer was killed nearby in February, when a man armed with a pistol and zip ties entered a hospital’s intensive care unit and took staff members hostage before a shootout that left both the man and an officer dead.
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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Durkin Richer reported from Washington, D.C. Associated Press reporters Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia; Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine; Kimberlee Kruesi in Providence, Rhode Island; Michael Casey in Boston and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this report.
