Matthew James Ruth suspect stalker hid in ex girlfriend’s North Codorus Township home, awaiting her return only for York County cops to walk in, leading to the ex boyfriend shooting and killing 3 cops and injuring two others.
A 24 year old Pennsylvania man accused of stalking his former girlfriend is alleged to have hid in her home awaiting her return only to open fire, shooting and killing 3 police officers who had arrived at the residence seeking the man’s whereabouts.
Matthew James Ruth of Hanover, according to prosecutors hid inside his ex-girlfriend’s home in the rolling farmland of North Codorus Township with an AR-style rifle and ambushed police officers who came to arrest him, killing three of them in a shootout.
Suspect stalker hid in ex girlfriend’s home waiting for her
Along with the three slain police officers, two other officers were critically wounded.
It all unfolded from the night before after Matthew Ruth is alleged to have arrived at the property of his former girlfriend’s mother’s home in North Codorus, donning camouflage gear and peering into the window just on 11.23 p.m. Tuesday night.
Concerned for their well-being the mother and daughter (who the suspect had previously dated) called police about the alleged suspect on property grounds. Responding police were unable to find the man but did observe a black Ford Ranger pick-up truck parked on Emig Road, court documents stated.
In the interim, the mother and her daughter fled the residence fearing for their lives.
The following morning, a warrant was issued for Ruth in which he was was charged with stalking, loitering/prowling at nighttime, and criminal trespassing. Officers with York County police went to the 24 year old’s Hanover home address to serve him but were unable to locate him.
Matthew James Ruth has been identified as the suspect in the fatal shooting of three police officers in North Codorus Township, York County, Pennsylvania, as they served a stalking warrant. Two more officers were injured in the shooting. pic.twitter.com/2s6RQT9OSf
— GeoTechWar (@geotechwar) September 18, 2025
Suspect stalker motive as a community grieves
Shortly after police returned to the mother’s family home where they noticed the door to the home was unlocked, even though the ex-girlfriend and her mother had locked it before fleeing.
Four plainclothes detectives from the Northern York County Regional Police Department wearing bulletproof vests opened the door and were immediately fired on by the suspect, who was carrying an AR-style rifle with a suppressor, York County District Attorney Tim Barker said, AP reported.
Barker said he believed that Ruth had planned to ambush his ex-girlfriend before the detectives walked in.
Ruth fired numerous rounds, killing three of the officers at the door and seriously wounding the fourth, Barker said. A gunfight then ensued between Ruth and two officers outside. Ruth wounded a York County sheriff’s deputy before he and another Northern York County Regional officer shot the gunman to death by the road, Barker said.
When the ex-girlfriend’s pickup truck mysteriously caught fire one night in August, she suspected Ruth was behind it, but had asked police not to investigate, Barker said.
Instead, she and her mother put up the trail camera and, nearly a month later, called police when they discovered an image of him wearing camouflage and peering into the house through what Barker called a scope-like device.
‘Hateful scourge of domestic violence’
Asked to comment on the shooter’s motive, Barker responded, ‘There is one motive though that is clear for everything. And that is the hateful scourge of domestic violence. That is what brought us here. That is what brought law enforcement here.’
On Thursday night, a couple hundred people gathered for a vigil honoring the officers at a church in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, where they had come to mourn the hero police officers killed during the line of fire.
