At least 75 local law enforcement officers are being placed on leave in Pittsburgh following an hourslong standoff with a man who shot at sheriff’s deputies when they went to serve an eviction notice.
Deputies went to serve the notice in the city’s Garfield neighborhood when the man “turned violent and began shooting,” the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday. The suspect, William Hardison Sr., was found dead inside the residence after gunfire was exchanged intermittently for roughly six-and-a-half hours.
Mike Manko, spokesman for the sheriff’s office, confirmed in an email to NBC News that 16 deputies were placed on administrative leave following the incident.
“The sheriff has reached out to each of the deputies personally and they will all go through a psych eval next week before being cleared to come back to work,” Manko said.
A dozen more Allegheny County Police officers were also placed on administrative leave. All 12 of the officers fired their weapons, a department spokesperson confirmed, and the leave is standard protocol for the department.
Another 47 Pittsburgh Police Department officers who were involved in incident are also on leave, the department confirmed, as part of its policy. The leave may vary between three to five days.
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Allegheny County Sheriff Kevin Kraus said he could not count the number of gunfire “volleys” between the suspect and officers.
“I mean, he had a lot of ammunition in that house, and certainly … all of us were strapped, you know, with ammunition, and we were calling for additional ammunition,” Kraus said. “Like I said, we tried to give him every opportunity to come out.”
It’s unclear how many bullets were fired during the standoff, in which numerous local and federal agencies responded to the scene.
Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt said in a press release following the incident that he would ensure employees and community members are “afforded all of the services they need to help process what they have witnessed.”
“Our Public Safety personnel — a family — the community of Garfield, and indeed the entire City of Pittsburgh, suffered a collective trauma today in experiencing this unfortunate incident,” Schmidt said.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
