Suspect captured after North Huntingdon standoff

A police standoff Monday in North Huntingdon, which impacted Norwin schools and brought tactical equipment to a residential neighborhood, ended when authorities found the suspect at a nearby home.

Randolph Eugene Dillinger, 54, was being sought by state parole agents in connection with a 2008 case out of Allegheny County, according to North Huntingdon Police Chief Robert Rizzo.

When agents went to Dillinger’s home before 8 a.m., he refused to come out and fled out a back door.

“The parole agents were there because Monroeville police had charged him Nov. 5 with prohibited offensive weapons and impersonating a public servant. They were there to serve him for violating parole in that 2008 case,” Rizzo said.

Rizzo said there was a verbal confrontation and Dillinger retreated to the second floor.

“He told the agent, ‘Don’t you come up here,’ and the agents knew his history and backed out of the house and called us. When we arrived, his mom came out and said she believed he may be armed with a sawed-off shotgun,” Rizzo said. “In that short period when state agents backed out, he was able to flee out the back and was not detected.”

Believing he was still inside, authorities requested help from the state police Special Emergency Response team. Police spent several hours in the Country Hills neighborhood near Crestwood, Butterfield and Fieldstone drives.

Rizzo said they found Dillinger later at a home along Hahntown-Wendel Road where he surrendered in the backyard about 12:10 p.m. Police appeared to wrap up their work around 12:30 p.m., searching the Dillinger home for weapons.

“We did not recover the sawed-off shotgun we believed he had. But we are happy the incident ended with no one injured and the suspect in custody,” Rizzo said.

State police were heard in the late morning addressing a person named Randy and asked him to come outside with his hands up. They used flash bangs just before 11:30 a.m.

“We’re state police,” troopers said. “We’re not here to hurt you.”

Dillinger was paroled from a state prison in May 2019, according to the Department of Corrections.

State police tactical equipment being brought into undisclosed police incident on Crestwood Drive in North Huntingdon that caused lockdown of elementary schools Monday. pic.twitter.com/vy82JTT3ba

— Paul Peirce (@ppeirce_trib) November 9, 2020

He was sentenced to one to five years in jail and three years of probation after pleading guilty but mentally ill in the 2008 case, according to online court records. He fired a gun inside his Glenfield duplex, wounding a neighbor, police said then.

New charges against him were filed Thursday by Monroeville police. He is charged in that case with weapons violations, impersonating a public servant and theft in connection with an October incident, according to court records.

Dillinger, who also used to live in Donegal Township, is on state parole for a 2012 incident in Westmoreland County. He was sentenced to five to 10 years in October 2013 and ordered to get a mental health evaluation, according to court records.

He was arrested in that case by state police after breaking into a Donegal storage facility and stealing $4,500 worth of Army gear. The equipment had been issued to a local soldier in preparation for a possible deployment.

Trooper in tactical gear walks toward 700 block of Crestwood Drive in North Huntingdon. Norwin elementary schools closed for police incident this morning. Police still have streets cordoned off at 10:40 a.m. No further word on incident. pic.twitter.com/e2h0gRKPzc

— Paul Peirce (@ppeirce_trib) November 9, 2020

Norwin school officials on Monday placed Norwin Middle and Hillcrest Intermediate schools on a modified lockdown as a result of the police activity. All schools for students in kindergarten through fourth grade were closed, with assignments given remotely, according to a message from the district.

A modified lockdown kept students and staff inside buildings and prohibited entry and exit to the school.

Rizzo said state parole agents were transporting Dillinger to the state correctional institution in Greene County.