By Karina Tsui, Amanda Musa, Gabe Cohen, John Miller, Josh Campbell, CNN

Spring Grove, Pennsylvania (CNN) — In late August, a pickup truck sitting in the driveway of a rural Pennsylvania home was set on fire by an unknown culprit. Even though the woman living there suspected her ex-boyfriend of committing the offense, she asked police not to investigate the incident further.

The woman told police she had only dated 24-year-old Matthew Ruth for a short time, he had never been to her house, and she never invited him there, according to York County officials.

After weeks of alleged stalking, officials say, the woman’s home would become the scene of a shootout between Ruth and local law enforcement attempting to serve a warrant for his arrest, culminating in the deaths of the shooter and three of the detectives who were trying to keep the woman safe.

Two other officers were injured in the shooting in North Codorus Township, an area about 115 miles west of Philadelphia, where homes are separated by sprawling farmland, officials say.

Just before midnight on September 16, the woman’s mother called police after a man fitting Ruth’s description was spotted on a trail camera set up outside the woman’s home, according to initial findings from an investigation by Pennsylvania State Police.

With an AR-15 style rifle strapped around his chest, the man in the photo scanned the home through binoculars before disappearing into the night, according to York County District Attorney Tim Barker.

Officials say the man’s black Ford Ranger was also found about half a mile up the road.

Officers with the Northern York County Regional Police Department and deputies from the York County Sheriff’s Department searched the area overnight, deploying a drone to aid in their search, Barker said during a news conference Thursday.

“Despite searching over the next several hours, a warrant was sworn out for (Ruth’s) arrest,” Barker said.

‘A brutal ambush’

When officers approached the woman’s farmhouse Wednesday afternoon, they took precautions, carefully scouring the scene with a drone, aware that Ruth could be nearby.

As officials approached the front door, previously left locked by the woman who had fled for her safety, they discovered the door was now unlocked – and upon entering, were hit with a barrage of gunfire.

The officers have been identified as Detective Sgt. Cody Becker, Detective Mark Baker and Detective Isaiah Emenheiser of the Northern York County Regional Police Department, according to Barker.

“Upon (the officers) immediately opening the door, (Ruth) repeatedly fired at the officers with multiple rounds from an AR-15 style rifle,” Barker said Thursday. Becker, Baker and Emenheiser were killed.

The shooter moved on to the farmhouse, where two more officers were shot and wounded.

Officials are still investigating the shooter’s movements prior to the shooting but note that he was very familiar with the home which his ex-girlfriend said he had never visited.

“He carefully surveilled the entire residence and the outbuilding areas,” Barker said, adding that officers are still investigating how the man entered the home.

The man also fatally shot his ex-girlfriend’s family dog, according to Barker.

“Besides discovering the initial casings from where (Ruth) began his barrage of murderous activity, they also discovered in the basement that he had killed the black Labrador that was owned by his ex-girlfriend’s mother,” Barker said.

Both officers remain hospitalized, according to Maggi Barton, spokesperson for Wellspan Health Hospital.

“One of the two patients in our care has been upgraded to satisfactory condition. The other is still listed in critical, but stable, condition at this time,” Barton said.

At least 30 shots rang out, a neighbor said. “It seemed like a war zone, sounded like a war zone,” Dave Miller told CNN.

Even so, one of the injured officers was able to return fire and kill the shooter, officials said. But Miller, hiding in his car, didn’t know that yet. His heart was pounding.

“I just could not believe what I saw,” Miller told CNN. “And then I looked at all the tall corn next to me and thought, ‘Well, if they didn’t get him, he’s on the run and he could come through the cornfield.’”

One of those still hospitalized Thursday was an officer with the Northern York County Regional Police Department, the agency said in a statement on Facebook.

“We ask our community to keep these officers, their families, and their colleagues in your thoughts and prayers during this time of unimaginable grief,” the department said.

Wednesday was one of the deadliest days for Pennsylvania law enforcement in the past century, according to The Associated Press. Nationwide, 37 law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty this year, the FBI reported.

‘I saw a body on the road’

Ruth was facing charges of stalking, loitering and prowling at nighttime and criminal trespass on the day of the shooting, York County court documents show.

Miller had been on his way home when he saw more than a dozen police searching for someone in a barn, he said. An officer launching a drone near the road advised Miller to keep moving, the neighbor told CNN. When he was just a few hundred feet from the scene, the gunfire started.

“Then I saw a body on the road,” Miller said. “I pretty much saw it hit, hit the ground.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he and other officials met Wednesday with the families of the slain officers.

“This is an absolutely tragic and devastating day,” he told reporters.

“We need to do better as a society,” 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.”

Wednesday’s shooting comes just months after an officer was killed during a shootout with a man who was holding staff members at a hospital hostage in York County. The attacker was also killed.

“The grief will be unbearable, but we will bear it,” Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris said in a news conference Wednesday as he pledged a full, fair investigation.

The FBI, along with agents from the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, are supporting local officials, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an X post Wednesday afternoon.

“Violence against law enforcement is a scourge on our society and never acceptable. Pray for the officers involved,” Bondi added.

FBI statistics released only last month showed that the number of reported assaults on law enforcement officers in 2024 had reached a 10-year high.

“Learning that three officers were killed in York County where I worked for many years as a prosecutor, and where I still call home, is unfathomable,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a post on X.

“The death of any public servant is an absolute tragedy,” Sunday said in a statement alongside the post.

On Wednesday afternoon, officers had blocked off roads near the barn and the nearby Spring Grove School District temporarily ordered students to shelter in place, before lifting the order hours later.

Police departments across the region have offered their condolences and people have begun leaving flowers at the headquarters of the Northern York Regional Police Department, the Associated Press reported.

Dozens of police and emergency vehicles with their lights flashing also formed a procession Wednesday evening for the three officers killed as people lined the roads holding American flags and saluting as it passed.

This story has been updated.

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This story was written by Andy Rose in Atlanta and Karina Tsui in Hong Kong, with reporting from Gabe Cohen in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania; John Miller in New York; Josh Campbell in Los Angeles; Danya Gainor in Washington, DC; and David Williams and Amanda Musa in Atlanta.