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‘The worst pain you can imagine,’ Trooper Shot at Barracks Testifies Against Eric Frein

MILFORD — Calling it, “the worst pain you can imagine,” the trooper who survived the ambush at the Pennsylvania State Police  barracks at Bloo...

MILFORD -- Calling it, "the worst pain you can imagine," the trooper who survived the ambush at the Pennsylvania State Police  barracks at Blooming Grove described what it was like on the night when he and another state trooper were shot.

As prosecutors in Pike County get closer to resting their case against Eric Frein, one of the key witnesses in the death penalty case took the stand.

Trooper Alex Douglass, one of two shot that night, and the only one to survive, told jurors all he's been through since the sniper attack in September of 2014.

Douglass limped to the stand late Monday afternoon and relived that night at the Blooming Grove barracks when he was shot and Corporal Bryon Dickson was murdered.

Douglass remembered showing up at the Blooming Grove barracks for an overnight shift when he heard a loud bang which he said sounded like a firework exploding.

"As I walked over to Corporal Dickson to see what the issue was, that's when I got shot. I went down to my knees. Luckily, I was by the front doors and was able to crawl into the station. At that point, I knew someone was shooting at us. I crawled on my arms, dragged my legs, and I couldn't feel my legs at the time," Douglass recalled in an interview in 2015.

He told jurors that getting shot felt like getting hit in the back with a baseball bat, and it was probably the worst pain you could imagine. He said it felt like his whole body was on fire.

As troopers did what they could to save Douglass' life, Corporal Dickson did not survive the ambush.

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Douglass testified saying, "I knew either some coward or cowards are shooting at us from across the street."

Douglass began to go into shock, couldn't feel his legs, and thought he might be paralyzed.

Since the shooting, Douglass has undergone 18 surgeries and battled infections. He explained to the jury he had to relearn how to live life and will likely be plagued by his injuries for the rest of his life.

Earlier in the day, prosecutors gave the jury a look at what keywords were searched on Eric Frein's laptop, the same laptop computer found in the abandoned airplane hangar near Tannersville where Frein was captured.

A few days before the 2014 attack, Frein searched police in Honesdale, Newfoundland, Hawley, and PA SWAT.

Within 24 hours before the deadly ambush, Frein searched, "understanding police procedures," and "how to respond to an officer down."

More than a month later, state police computer experts told Jurors Frein began using open Wi-Fi internet accounts at homes even, one in East Stroudsburg after a five-mile hike from the hangar and back at night.

Frein looked up Blooming Grove and Bryon Dickson, and even wanted posters of himself on the FBI's ten most wanted fugitives list.

Corporal Derek Fozard then read a letter from Frein to his parents found on a USB thumb drive after his capture.

It read, in part:

"Our nation is far from what it was and what it should be. I've seen so many depressing changes.

"The time seems right for a spark to ignite a fire in the hearts of men.

"I am sorry. You are good parents, I'm not a good son."

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