Halloween festivities back on in US town that lived with massive manhunt

Trick-or-treating was back on Friday in a northeastern Pennsylvania town that spent the last seven weeks under siege as hundreds of law enforcement officers searched for the survivalist accused of fatally shooting one state trooper and injuring another. Not long after Eric Frein was arrested Thursday evening, Barrett Township supervisors got the word out that the town’s hundreds of children can go trick-or-treating Friday night after all. “The kids have gone through enough,” said Ralph Megliola, chairman of the board of supervisors. The traditional Halloween parade and door-to-door trick-or-treating had been canceled while Frein was on the loose in the heavily wooded township. During the search, residents in and around a main five-mile search area endured roadblocks, school closings and the whir of helicopters as hundreds of police swarmed neighborhoods, sometimes in response to possible sightings. Frein was jeered when he made a court appearance for a preliminary arraignment.

With losing the parade, getting trick-or-treating back — it’s the best we can do with the circumstances.

Ralph Megliola, chairman, board of supervisors, Barrett township

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