Standoff Ends; Double-Homicide Suspect Nowhere To Be FoundPolice Think Clairton Man Was Holed Up In HousePOSTED: 8:56 am EST November 13,
2008 CLAIRTON, Pa. -- Allegheny County detectives and SWAT team members surrounded a home for hours Thursday, thinking a double-homicide suspect was barricaded inside, but they said the man somehow got away."Mr. Harris is now out and about. He should be considered armed and dangerous," county police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said of 24-year-old Leroy Harris Jr.Police said they went to a home on Wilson Avenue and tried to serve a warrant on Harris on Thursday morning,Police said they were close to catching Harris, coming face-to-face with him, and asked him to come out of the home. Channel 4 Action News' Janelle Hall reports officers tried to use a Taser on Harris, but he had too many layers of clothing on, so it didn't work.Moffatt said Harris then pulled out a gun and fired at officers at least five times. The police at the scene then returned fire.Between the time the shots were fired and the time SWAT showed up, the suspect got out of the building and disappeared because there weren't enough officers at the scene, Moffatt said.The SWAT team was on standby for almost seven hours, at one point firing teargas into the home in Clairton."It sounded like a bomb. When they fired that thing first -- fired that thing inside the house -- we said, 'Boom!'" Deborah Sumpter, a neighbor said.Police said Harris was wanted in connection with the deaths of James Robertson and Dominique Cochran, who were shot at a house in McKeesport on Jan. 15, 2007."I think you have to take into consideration that he shot at the officers, and that the homicide that he's wanted for were people that he knew, so I don't think anybody's safe as long as Mr. Harris is out and about," Moffatt said.Harris was questioned about the shootings of Robertson and Cochran soon after they were killed, but he was not named as a homicide suspect until about a month later."We're all concerned, naturally, for the welfare. I'm concerned for the welfare of my son and the welfare of everybody," said Harris' father, Leroy Harris Sr., who watched the standoff from the street.Harris Sr. called his son "a good, smart boy" who comes from a Christian family, and said this situation is difficult for the family. When asked about the homicide charges, he said it's all rumors.Clairton Education Center, which holds classes for kindergarten through 12th grade, was on lockdown during the standoff. The school building is located a few blocks away on Waddell Avenue.
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