Nearly 50 Pittsburgh police officers on administrative leave following fatal Garfield standoff

Nearly 50 Pittsburgh police officers are on administrative leave after Wednesday’s hourslong standoff in Garfield that ended in the death of the suspect.

Pittsburgh police Chief Larry Scirotto said at a news conference Thursday he anticipates the officers could return to work within three to five days.

In the meantime, Scirotto said, investigative and administrative officers will fill in for uniformed patrolmen to ensure staffing needs are met. The police bureau has about 800 officers.

The majority of the city’s SWAT team is on leave, and the chief said any calls for that unit will be handled by neighboring law enforcement agencies.

Allegheny County sheriff’s deputies went to 4817 Broad St. about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday to evict William Hardison Jr., 63, from the home. Police said Hardison opened fire on the deputies a short time later, and shots would be exchanged between Hardison and law enforcement into the late afternoon.

The incident ended when police reported Hardison was dead just after 5 p.m.

On Thursday afternoon, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said it suspected Hardison was killed by law enforcement.

An eviction notice had been served on Hardison three weeks earlier after the new owners of the house made the request with the courts.

The house previously had been owned by Hardison’s brother, Joseph, who died in March 2021. Their father, William Hardison Sr., then sold the house to a company, 907 East Street LLC, on Feb. 2.

William Hardison Jr. continued to live there, despite requests by the company for him to move out.

During Thursday’s news conference, Mayor Ed Gainey said he grew up with members of Hardison’s family but did not know him. He said he had never met with him, despite reports to the contrary.

Gainey said he spoke with members of Hardison’s family earlier in the day and offered his condolences. He said he also offered regret that the incident ended the way it did.

Although Gainey could not address Hardison’s housing situation directly, he said the system is flawed.

“There’s a lot of cracks in the system that this would have been covered, and we wouldn’t be here,” he said. “A lot of these laws have to be changed if we want to become the safe city we want to become.

“We really need to talk about how we fix these breakdowns on a federal, state and a local level so that people don’t have to go through this sad day.”

Pennsylvania State Police are handling the investigation of the standoff and will relay their findings to Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. to determine whether the use of deadly force by responding officers was justified.

Typically, an incident like this would have been investigated by Allegheny County Police, but they could not because they were involved in the exchange of gunfire, Scirotto said.

In addressing the specifics of the standoff, officials said the outcome was not the one that law enforcement wanted.

Scirotto said the city’s tactical team exhausted every resource in an attempt to reach a peaceful resolution, including playing messages for Hardison from his family members.

“They made multiple attempts over the course of hours to have a peaceful surrender,” Gainey said. “These attempts included direct communication from officers and messages from his family. Every attempt was either met with silence or firing of a weapon.”

Law enforcement’s primary objective on Wednesday, the mayor said, was “protecting the lives of people in that neighborhood and making sure that everybody on that street was safe.”

He praised the police response.

“They worked to help evacuate (nearby residents) to safety, often taking shots while they were transporting innocent bystanders to get out of harm’s way.”

Sheriff’s spokesman Mike Manko said his office had seven deputies on scene to serve the eviction paperwork — more than the typical three or four.

Manko said the Sheriff’s Office sent a larger number of deputies because Hardison expressed disdain for the government as a sovereign citizen, not because the office feared Hardison would be dangerous.

Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto explains his department’s response on Wednesday to the standoff in Garfield. pic.twitter.com/DuiO39z58O

— Paula Reed Ward (@PaulaReedWard) August 24, 2023

During Thursday’s news conference, Scirotto said law enforcement did not anticipate violence from Hardison.

“Even as the event evolved, there wasn’t information to suggest that Mr. Hardison was violent in any other encounters,” Scirotto said. “There wasn’t intelligence to suggest such.”

Had law enforcement suspected Hardison would have been armed and violent, they would have approached the operation differently, the chief said. “There would have been much more engagement in advance of (showing up at the house), and we wouldn’t have put the officer in the doorway.”

Scirotto said there had been only one prior police call to the residence — on March 23, related to a firearm owned by William Hardison’s brother.

On Thursday, Gainey said social workers and members of the city’s trauma team and neighborhood service team were going door to door in Garfield to offer support and resources. Included in that is ensuring financial compensation for any property damage from the gunfire. Gainey said those going around the neighborhood will deliver claims forms to those who need them. For additional help, the mayor said residents can call 412-255-2015.

“Today, we start the recovery in our healing,” Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt said.