13-hour standoff in Harrison ends with tear gas, rubber bullets

Police used rubber bullets and tear gas Tuesday afternoon to remove a 47-year-old man barricaded for 13 hours in a Natrona home.

Allegheny County Police said the man will be charged with four counts of aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer and four counts of resisting arrest.

TribLive is not identifying the man because police described the situation as a mental health crisis.

There were no injuries immediately reported.

Harrison officers, assisted by Allegheny County SWAT and other agencies, negotiated with the man inside a Linden Street rowhouse to no avail.

Police originally went to the home about 1:30 a.m. to serve a mental health commitment warrant when they encountered the man with several knives, according to a statement from county police.

He refused to leave and barricaded himself inside the bedroom, prompting police to request county negotiators. Early Tuesday afternoon, county police said, police on the scene requested a full county police SWAT team to respond.

Following additional negotiations, SWAT officers deployed tear gas into the house and the man exited, armed with multiple knives, and ran toward officers.

Officers then deployed less lethal means, including bean bag rounds and a Taser, to take him into custody at 2:20 pm.

He was taken to a hospital for evaluation.

For hours, small crowds of people gathered outside and emergency vehicles blocked streets nearby. The apartment building sits across from the Polish National Alliance club.

A neighbor who lives in the rowhouse said the incident started well before 1:30 a.m. when the first police units arrived.

The rowhouse has four units, and the neighbor said she could hear yelling on and off for hours.

She said the man locked himself in a room with a knife, threatening to kill himself if the police entered.

Neighbors were asked to leave their homes about 1 p.m., when SWAT arrived.

“He had a bad day yesterday, fighting and yelling,” the neighbor said. “This has been going on for 13 hours now. I’ve never seen anything like it. They need to just go in and get him.”

“This is affecting everyone now,” she said. “People have not slept.”

The man does not live at the residence but stays occasionally with a family member there, neighbors said. That family member also was taken to the hospital for evaluation early in the incident.

Harrison police posted on social media about 3 p.m. that the situation was contained.

“There are no known hazards to public safety,” the post read.

Jack Troy, Amani Clark-Bey and Tawnya Panizzi are TribLive staff writers. Jack can be reached at jtroy@triblive.com. Amani can be reached at aclark-bey@triblive.com. Tawnya can be reached at tpanizzi@triblive.com.