Pittsburgh police respond to a shooting in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Garfield on Wednesday, Aug., 23, 2023. TribLIVE.com via AP

Shane Dunlap

The suspect who was confirmed dead after an hours-long standoff with police in Pittsburgh’s Garfield neighborhood has been identified as William Hardison, according to numerous Pittsburgh news outlets.

Hardison, 63, was pronounced deceased by Pittsburgh EMS at 5:08 p.m. Wednesday, Pittsburgh Public Safety confirmed late Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 23.

The standoff in Pittsburgh caused residences to be evacuated Wednesday afternoon, according to officials.

People were warned at 11:01 a.m. to avoid the 4800 block of Broad and North Mathilda Streets in the Garfield neighborhood due to the situation, Pittsburgh Public Safety said.

Pittsburgh authorities said shots were fired when deputies from the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office attempted to serve an eviction notice to a man who was illegally occupying the home after it had recently been bought during a sheriff’s sale.

Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto speaks after Pittsburgh Police and other law enforcement agencies responded to an active shooter situation in the Garfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Aug. 23. A person facing eviction opened fire from inside a Pittsburgh home Wednesday and was later pronounced dead after a siege that lasted much of the day, authorities said. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP

Sebastian Foltz/Post-Gazette

Witnesses said they heard what sounded like hundreds of shots beginning at about 11 a.m., and more gunfire erupted hours later.

A large number of police and other first responders deployed to the scene, just a few blocks from a children’s hospital.

According to WTAE, the home was owned by Hardison's father, who sold the house to a company called 907 East Street. In May, the company filed a complaint to evict Hardison, but they say he refused to leave and that he also refused to pay rent for the past five months, the news outlet reported.

According to WPXI, Hardison believed he was a sovereign citizen, meaning he thought he was exempt from the law.

Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto said the joint response by personnel from SWAT, state and county law enforcement, the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives “saved many officers' lives in a very tense and rapidly uncertain environment” and also protected the neighborhood.

The shooter was given “every opportunity” to surrender peacefully, he added, and that was why the situation “took the amount of time that it took.”

Drones were used to try to communicate and to scope out the home, but “every time we had deployed one of those, three or four instances, it was disabled by gunfire,” Scirotto said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Children are escorted out of the Community Preschool & Nursery on Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh during a standoff in the Garfield neighborhood Wednesday, Aug. 23. A person facing eviction opened fire from inside a home Wednesday and was later pronounced dead after a siege that lasted much of the day, authorities said. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP

Sebastian Foltz