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

Spring Grove, Pennsylvania (CNN) — When officers in rural Pennsylvania approached a farmhouse Wednesday afternoon to serve a warrant, they took precautions, carefully scouring the scene with a drone.

Still, they weren’t prepared for an armed man dressed in camouflage – now identified as Matthew Ruth – who lurked in nearby cornfields and had no interest in talking.

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

Three officers were left for dead outside, law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation told CNN, and the shooter moved on to the farmhouse in York County, where two more officers were shot and wounded.

Even so, one of the injured officers was able to return fire and kill the shooter, officials said. But Miller, still 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.’”

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’

The shooter was not publicly named by police, but two state law enforcement officials identified him to CNN as 24-year-old Matthew James Ruth of Hanover, Pennsylvania. Court documents in York County show Ruth was facing charges of stalking, loitering and prowling at nighttime and criminal trespass on the day of the shooting.

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.”

As he was fleeing the scene once the gunfire subsided, Miller saw a large police presence descending on the area, he said – with officers in riot gear and carrying long rifles arriving in droves.

The shootout unfolded around 2 p.m. in North Codorus Township, an area dotted with small barns and sprawling farmland about 115 miles west of Philadelphia. Miller said the threat of gun violence was not something residents are used to.

Officers with the Northern York County Regional Police and the Sheriff’s Office were trying to serve the suspect – the ex-boyfriend of a woman who lived in the farmhouse – with a warrant, law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation told CNN.

The woman had reported seeing the ex-boyfriend stalking the residence Tuesday, prompting Northern York County Regional Police Department to obtain an arrest warrant and restraining order.

The day before the shooting, a man believed to be Ruth had been spotted on a trail camera standing in the driveway of the property where the ex-girlfriend lived with her mother, an arrest affidavit obtained Thursday by CNN affiliate WGAL states.

“The male is looking through a scope device with it pointed towards the residence,” said an investigator who described a still image taken by the camera. The man “also had an AR-15 style rifle slung across his chest while looking into the residence,” according to the affidavit.

Police were unable to find Ruth on Tuesday night after searching for several hours, according to the court document.

Ruth appeared to be lying in wait when officers arrived, the sources said. The shooter was wearing camouflage, according to the law enforcement officials. It’s not yet clear to investigators whether the shooter was waiting for his ex-girlfriend or the arresting officers.

Authorities have not yet identified the officers involved. The two wounded officers are in critical, but stable condition, Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris said in a news conference Wednesday.

“The grief will be unbearable, but we will bear it,” said Paris, as he pledged a full, fair investigation. He did not give details on the circumstances of how they were shot, citing an ongoing investigation.

Within hours of the shooting, mourners with American flags gathered alongside a street in Spring Grove for a late-night procession honoring the fallen officers, as first responders’ vehicles crossed under an arch formed by the ladders of two fire trucks.

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.

“In being here today with our law enforcement family for the second time in 2025,” said Paris, “I’d just like to say on a very personal note our hearts and prayers go out to them, to the families of the deceased and the families of those officers who were wounded.”

The Pennsylvania State Police will “convene a major case team” in partnership with the York County District Attorney’s Office over the latest incident and state authorities have been in touch with the FBI, Paris said.

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, AP 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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CNN’s Andy Rose and Danya Gainor contributed to this report.