'Hundreds of rounds': Pittsburgh man who fired at police dies following hours-long standoff

The Pittsburgh man who fired at law enforcement after being served an eviction notice is now dead following an hours-long standoff that involved the exchange of "hundreds of rounds." 

Authorities have identified the deceased suspect as William Hardison, though no information pertaining to how he died has been released.

Pittsburgh Public Safety announced Hardison's death shortly after 2 p.m. EST, six hours after first alerting the public of the active shooter situation on the 4800 block of Broad Street and North Mathilda Street in the city's Garfield neighborhood.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, residents reported hearing "a barrage of gunfire" shortly after 11 a.m., with some saying it sounded like "hundreds of rounds." Officers began evacuating people from the block, with those in their homes ordered to shelter in place.

Before long, hundreds of law enforcement officers from the Pittsburgh Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, and other agencies had descended on the area. They brought with them an armored vehicle and equipment that could be used to force their way into Hardison's home.

The following hours were punctuated by bursts of gunfire as officers and Hardison waited for one another to make their move.

"We certainly didn’t expect this," Allegheny County Sheriff Kevin Kraus said of the situation. "There’s factors that go into these types of things. We do we evaluate, we respond accordingly, but we certainly had no information whatsoever that this individual was this dangerous or that there were firearms in this house."

Mayor Ed Gainey released a statement thanking law enforcement for keeping residents safe, calling the incident an "unfortunate tragedy."

As the Post-Gazette reports, friends of Hardison said he was a veteran and considered himself a sovereign citizen. He reportedly suffered from mental health issues and was recently diagnosed with cancer.

Hardison had been squatting in the home, which was owned by his brother before it was bought by a 907 East Street LLC, since March, and had received an eviction notice in May alerting him that the company planned on renovating the property to sell it on.