Neighbors heard at least a dozen gunshots early Thursday before police and SWAT officers swarmed a quiet stretch of Gilkeson Road in Mt. Lebanon, where police say a man killed his parents and then opened fire on police.
“We were trying to go to sleep when we were awakened by, I would say, at least 12 gunshots,” said Anne Dryden, who lives next door to the home where the shooting took place. She said they called 911.
“They said, ‘Put the lights out, make sure the doors are locked, don’t go outside and stay away from the windows,’ ” she said. “So we stood in the living room, the three of us, for about an hour.”
Police said a 25-year-old man, whom they have not identified, called police to confess he’d killed his parents after an argument and wanted to surrender.
“Indications were that he had in fact taken the life of his parents. … The individual at that point had wanted to give himself up,” said Jason Haberman, deputy chief for the Mt. Lebanon Police Department.
Authorities found the couple, a 65-year-old man and 59-year-old woman, dead in the home.
When police arrived at the red brick home, the man initially was calm and cooperative, authorities said. Then he began shooting.
Police returned fire. A Dormont police officer was shot in the torso, according to Allegheny County Police, who have taken over the investigation. Inspector Michael Peairs said in a statement the officer’s ballistic vest likely saved him from a life-threatening injury.
A Mt. Lebanon police officer suffered a non-gunshot injury.
Both officers have been released from the hospital.
The man hid from officers before fleeing in a vehicle. Officers from neighboring jurisdictions responded to a request for assistance in locating the man, and officers pursued him as he headed south on Route 19, Peairs said.
The man crashed near the intersection of Route 19 and McLaughlin Run Road, police said.
The man was found dead inside the car from an apparent gunshot wound to the head. Peairs said it’s believed to have been self-inflicted.
Dryden said the scene outside her home in the predawn hours was unfathomable.
“There was a SWAT team right outside of the house,” she said. She saw an officer walk past the windows of her television room.
Dryden said police brought in spotlights to search her backyard and the neighboring backyard, where the shooting took place.
The neighborhood, she said, is quiet.
“Nothing — nothing like this at all,” she said.
She said she knew the neighbors well, and the son helped care for his ailing father.
“The strange thing is … (the son) was a really nice kid,” she said. “He took care of his father. That’s what makes it so unbelievable.”
