By PETER CAMERON
Times-Shamrock Writer
Under a gigantic American flag, four Pennsylvania state troopers on horseback watched silently while hundreds paid their respects to Cpl. Bryon Dickson II at Marywood University in Dunmore, Pennsylvania.
An army of officers, clustered together in matching uniforms of blue, green and gray, stood in a line that wrapped around the university's Rotunda building, where the public viewing was held Wednesday afternoon. Civilian friends and family of the 38-year-old trooper left the Rotunda dabbing wet eyes and exchanging embraces.
State troopers from as far as Massachusetts and Alabama attended the viewing, as did police officers from all around area and the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
A silver hearse marked with a U.S. Marine Corps decal and adorned with American flags sat outside the building. Dickson, a Dunmore native, is a former Marine.
Dunmore police also stood guard and a buzzing helicopter circled above, a reminder that Dickson's killer has yet to be apprehended.
The sniper attack on Dickson and another trooper has attracted national media attention, and a small gaggle of journalists standing at a slight distance snapped photos and watched the flow of people into the building.
At one point, a group of leather-clad motorcyclists rode into the area, their roaring bikes announcing their arrival to pay their respects.
Attorney General Kathleen Kane, state Sen. John Blake, D-22, Archbald, and state Rep. Kevin Haggerty, D-112, Dunmore, were among the visiting dignitaries.
The funeral for the slain trooper will be held at 10 Thursday morning at St. Peter's Cathedral, 315 Wyoming Ave., Scranton.
Contact the writer: pcameron@timesshamrock.com.