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DEVELOPING: Hundreds of Rounds Fired After Sheriff’s Deputies Attempt to Serve Eviction Notice, Hundreds of Law Enforcement Officers Respond


Hundreds of law enforcement officers responded to an ‘active shooter’ situation in Pittsburgh’s Garfield neighborhood Wednesday.

Pittsburgh Public Safety told residents to avoid the “4800 block of Broad Street and North Mathilda Street in Garfield,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

Allegheny County Sheriff’s deputies reportedly went to a residence to serve an eviction notice when the suspect began shooting.

The scene escalated into a shootout, with hundreds of rounds being fired.

Officials reportedly attempted to evacuate the entire neighborhood amidst the ‘extremely active situation.’

“A neighbor said he heard hundreds of rounds when the shooting started and there have been hundreds of rounds since. Said he immediately hit the ground in his living room,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Megan Guza reports.

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“Easily hundreds of SWAT officers here, like from both Pittsburgh police and Allegheny County. Sheriff’s deputies were the first to encounter the shooter,” Guza added.

“More from the Allegheny County sheriff’s office: The active scene in Garfield began this morning when a detail from our office attempted to serve an eviction notice, which was followed by gunfire from the occupant of the residence,” Guza reports.

“One of our Sergeants who was leading the detail sustained a minor non-gunfire related injury while avoiding the incoming gunfire. He is ok.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:

Neighbor Leslie Thompson told Post-Gazette news partner KDKA-TV she heard officers arrive at her neighbor’s house and try to make entry.

“I went to shut my windows and at that point was when I heard shots ring out,” she said. “I was very nervous. … Trying to get to the basement was unbearable. Shots were ringing out everywhere.”

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She said shots came through the window and into her living room and bathroom.

A neighbor who did not want to be named said he heard more than a hundred shots during the incident.

“I’ve never heard bullets like this,” he said. “Something you’d see in a movie.”

Numerous roads in the area were closed while authorities arrived to the scene, and shots were continuing to be fired.

Officers were working to evacuate people from homes in the block. Police asked anyone in the homes to continue sheltering in place, call 911 and identify their address and location to be safely removed.

“In the beginning, all we heard was the cops,” Chris Wilkinson, who is visiting family in the area, told KDKA-TV. “They were banging on the door where the shooting takes place. They were banging on it telling him they were there. And after a couple of minutes of them doing it, they started to kick down the door, but after a few tries they couldn’t do it. Then, they got a sledgehammer and took down the door, and after that shots started to be fired.”

This is a developing story. 



 

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