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-Lurid Crime Tales-

Pittsburgh shooter Bill Hardison is dead: Six-hour stand-off is over after squatter who was a veteran and 'Sovereign Citizen' fired 1,000 rounds against SWAT teams while barricaded inside his late brother's house

2023-08-24

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A grandfather who fought Pittsburgh police over his impending house eviction was confirmed dead after a six-hour gun battle that saw more than 100 shots fired.

A police source named the man as William Bill Hardison, 63, according to WPXI-TV, while relatives said the house on Broad Street in Garfield had been owned by his recently deceased brother.

Shortly after 4.40pm a drone found the gunman 'prone' and bloody after flying around the house, and less than 30 minutes later police confirmed the man's death, according to KDKA.

'We wanted a peaceful conclusion, a surrender in this instance, and so we used various methods to accomplish that,' Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Chief Larry Scirotto said. 'With every opportunity we were met with gunfire.'

A woman identifying herself as the man's sister had offered herself as a go-between.

'He's a good man, he's just lost his brother and he was in the service,' the woman shouted at reporters.

But neighbors described him as violent and said he boarded up the home's windows with large 'do not disturb' signs, WPXI reported.

Hardison had a criminal history and once entered a guilty plea for carrying a firearm without a license, according to local news station WTAE, and he got two years probation. He also entered a guilty plea to forgery or altering a title or registration where he received three years probation. Hardison pleaded guilty to an accident involving death or injury and got two years probation in 2005. In another incident in 2001, he admitted to fleeing or attempting to elude and disorderly conduct and received six months probation.

After the brother's death, the property went to a tax sale, and now has a new owner, but the squatter has still refused to vacate. Following his brother's death, the mortgage on the home went into arrears and more than $15,000 was owed.

It was taken over by an LLC that bought the property for $25,000 in March before filing an eviction notice against Hardison in May and claimed he was living there without paying rent. The Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office was serving that eviction notice to him on Wednesday when the shooting situation began.

There have been at least nine hearings concerning the property, according to court documents.

One police source said the gunman identifies as a 'sovereign citizen', an anti-government extremist, WPXI reported.

As he is African-American, he may even have veered as far into the weeds as the Moorish Sovereign Citizens movement, also known as the Indigenous Moors, who have the queer idea that they are the native people of North America and therefore entitled to ignore the laws and retake title to any property that catches their eye, who pop up here from time to time. The non-African-American sovereign citizens movement is a parallel but separate strand of craziness in this great land of ours.

Posted by:Skidmark

#5 ^^^lol

Posted by: Chris 2023-08-24 10:55

#4 and all new ventilation was just added

Posted by: Frank G 2023-08-24 09:04

#3 In that neighborhood, not much. In PeeAye, and especially in the People's Democrapic Rethuglic of Allegheny County, a very fanciful amount may have accrued due to the mortgage and unpaid taxes.

Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-08-24 08:54

#2 15K owed on the house. Wonder what it was really worth.

Posted by: 49 Pan 2023-08-24 08:44

#1 Pittsburgh 'active shooter situation' reported, police say 'hundreds of rounds were fired'

Posted by: Skidmark 2023-08-23 12:57

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