SCRANTON, PA — Gunfire that broke out in Scranton early this morning ended with a police officer seriously wounded.

Scranton police officers had responded to reports of shots fired at residences in the Scranton Hill and South Scranton sections of the city on Wednesday and Thursday, According to Robert M. Urban of the Pennsylvania State Police at Dunmore. Officers canvassing these neighborhoods found surveillance footage that led to a suspect vehicle: a 2006 Ford Fusion with Pennsylvania registration. 

Today, at around 4:30 a.m., Scranton officers discovered the vehicle, unoccupied, parked on Sweatland Street in West Scranton. Their search of the area led to an encounter with the suspect on North Decker Court. 

Upon confronting the officers, the suspect opened fire, resulting in one officer sustaining a head injury.

In response, another officer returned fire, striking the suspect. 

The wounded officer and suspect were transported to Geisinger Community Medical Center. The officer’s injuries are life-threatening, according to Urban, while the suspect’s injuries are not.

A subsequent investigation revealed that the suspect, in the company of Jeremiah Cleveland, 19, of Mayfield, PA, was responsible for the shots fired in the Hill Section and South Scranton from January 10 and 11. 

The following charges have been filed against Cleveland: Discharging a Firearm into an Occupied Structure, Firearm Carried without a License, Recklessly Endangering Another Person, and Criminal Use of a Communication Facility.

The investigation into the suspected shooter is ongoing, and charges are anticipated to be filed, Urban said.

Ten years ago in Pike County, Eric Frein ambushed and killed Corporal Byron Dickson and critically wounded Trooper Alex Douglass at the state police barracks in Blooming Grove. Frein was found guilty in 2017 by a jury that recommended the death sentence. Frein currently awaits execution on death row at SCI Phoenix, a maximum security prison.