The man who gunned down three detectives in central Pennsylvania had been wanted on suspicion of stalking a former girlfriend and broke into her house before he ambushed the officers, authorities said Thursday.
Police had been on the lookout for Matthew James Ruth, 24, in hope of arresting him on allegations of stalking, prowling and trespassing, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.
“Matthew J. Ruth is the actor” who fatally shot three officers, York County District Attorney Tim Barker told reporters Thursday, vowing to never mention Ruth’s name again.
The three fallen policemen were identified as Detective-Sgt. Cody Becker, Detective Mark Baker and Detective Isaiah Emenheiser.
Barker called it a result of "the hateful scourge of domestic violence."
"That is what brought us here, that is what brought law enforcement here, that is what started all the activity," Barker said.
The ongoing police search for Ruth took officers back to the ex-girlfriend's home Wednesday afternoon, officials said.
The front door was unlocked, Barker said, signaling that an intruder was inside because the girlfriend and her mother had locked up on their way out of the house for their own safety.
"Upon immediately opening the door, the actor repeatedly fired at the officers with multiple rounds from an AR-15 style rifle," Barker said.
The ambush unleashed a brutal firefight that ended in Ruth's death.
Barker declined to reveal whether Ruth was killed by other police at the scene or he died by his own hand.
"Following the final exchange of fire the actor became deceased," Barker said. "So I will leave it at that."
The deadly saga started late Tuesday when police responded to reports of a man in camouflage who was spotted looking through a home's windows with binoculars on Haar Road in North Codorus Township, which is about 110 miles west of central Philadelphia, the complaint said.
Trail cameras in the area spotted the prowler in camouflage, and the home's resident, Julia Zumbrum, identified him as Ruth, whom she had once dated, police said.
On Aug. 20, Zumbrum's pickup truck was set on fire, and she "suspected her ex-boyfriend was the culprit," police said.
In still images believed to be of Ruth taken from trail cameras, the man "had an AR-15 style rifle slung across his chest," according to the complaint.
Ruth and the former girlfriend had “only dated for a short period of time and Ruth had never been to her house, nor had he ever been invited there,” the complaint said.
Police went back to the ex-girlfriend's home Wednesday to "see if they could provide ultimate safety," Barker said.
"And rather than being able to provide ultimate safety, they wound up having to provide ultimate sacrifice," he added.
Had the former girlfriend and her mother returned home before police, they would have been the slain victims, officials said.
Ruth also killed the family's dog, a black Labrador retriever, they said.
"We have two lives of the residents there that are saved today," Barker said. "Had they arrived home and not Northern Regional Police Department officers, they would have been killed immediately by the actor. Again, that is not speculation. That is the absolute only reasonable inference from all actions."
In addition to the three slain men, two more law enforcement officers were critically wounded, police said.
An initial search of law enforcement records did not yield any evidence that Ruth was ineligible to own firearms, Barker said.
