Homicide suspect dead after standoff with Pittsburgh, county police

A five-hour standoff shut down streets in Pittsburgh’s Hill District on Friday as police tried to get a homicide suspect out of the home near the intersection of Bedford Avenue and Manilla Avenue.

The man exchanged gunfire with officers, and Tribune-Review news partner WPXI-TV reported the man, identified as Khalil Singletary, was found dead in the home shortly before 6 p.m.

The standoff began about 12:30 p.m., prompting SWAT officers from Pittsburgh and Allegheny County police departments to respond to the area. Investigators said Singletary shot at officers, who returned fire.

They entered the home several hours later and found Singletary dead.

Singletary was charged last week with homicide in connection with the Sept. 22 killing of Daniel Brice in the city’s Beltzhoover neighborhood, court records show.

The shooting happened shortly after 5 p.m. outside a vacant home on Climax Street, according to police. A ShotSpotter alert indicated gunfire in the area about 5:13 p.m., and two detectives who were already nearby spotted a speeding Dodge Durango with the hazard lights on go through several red lights.

The officers stopped the SUV and found a man, later identified as Brice, shot multiple times in the passenger seat, according to the criminal complaint. Two adults and two children were also in the car.

Brice was transported to UPMC Mercy hospital and taken immediately into surgery, though he was pronounced dead about an hour after the shooting.

Both adults in the car — identified in the complaint only as Witness 1 and Witness 2 — said Brice went to Beltzhoover to sell marijuana to someone who contacted him via text message. Both witnesses said Brice got out of the car at a vacant home on Climax Street and met with a man they didn’t know, according to the complaint.

They said a short time later they heard gunshots and saw Brice lying in the street and the unknown man fleeing toward the back of the house.

Police said both witnesses later picked Singletary out of a photo array.

Investigators indicated that a cell phone, dropped behind a vacant home on Climax Street, led detectives to Singletary. The iPhone, police said, had saved to it several selfies Singletary had taken in a mirror along with photos of his license and Social Security card, according to the complaint.

The phone also contained text exchanges with Brice, saved in the phone under the name “Bryce.”

The text messages included one from Singletary giving the address on Climax Street, and the last message from Brice was about 15 minutes prior to the ShotSpotter alert, according to the complaint.