Multiple Pitt students were evacuated from their residences by SWAT officials when City of Pittsburgh SWAT responded to the 3200 block of Cato and Juliet streets on Monday night. 

According to the Pittsburgh Public Safety Department, the situation arose after the Bureau of Pittsburgh Police attempted to serve a warrant. The suspect then barricaded himself in a house on Juliet Street, and residents of adjacent buildings were temporarily evacuated. 

A suspect was taken into custody at approximately 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to a City of Pittsburgh public safety update. According to the Pitt emergency notification system, the area was cleared at 6:47 a.m.  

What happened Monday night

According to neighbors, the incident began around 7:30 p.m., when Gavin Moore, a second-year graduate student who lives at 3211 Juliet St., was taking his trash out and noticed a police presence outside. 

“There were a bunch of cops outside, and they told me to get back inside right away,” Moore said. 

Mia Nocco, a senior environmental engineering student who lives at 3207 Juliet St., confirmed that she and her roommates noticed police outside their house at around 7:30 p.m. She said one officer was on her porch and another was on her neighbor’s porch.

Nocco said she lives directly next door to the house that SWAT officers responded to.

“Nobody said anything to us,” Nocco said of the police officials. “I went out to take the trash out, as a nosy person does, and I was like, ‘Hey, what are you doing? And he was like, ‘Oh, we’re watching the door. We’re trying to get in.’”

Garret Shaw, a sophomore marketing and accounting major who was standing at the corner of Juliet Street and Cato Street, said he saw fire trucks and police cars starting to block off the road and set a perimeter at approximately 8 p.m.

Moore confirmed that he went outside again around 8:30 p.m. and noticed an official dressed in SWAT gear with a large gun in hand. 

Then, approximately “20 minutes later,” Moore said he heard a loud noise, which he said he believed to be a gunshot. 

At 9:56 p.m., Nocco texted her friend that SWAT was outside her window. One minute later, at 9:57 p.m., she texted that same friend “gun.”

The Pittsburgh Public Safety Department has stated there were no reports of shots fired during the situation.

Nocco estimated that within 20 minutes of hearing what she believed to be a gunshot, SWAT officers banged on her door, entered her house and asked that she and her roommates put on warm clothes and evacuate. Nocco said she and her roommates were escorted out of the house and directed into police vehicles that took them to the corner of Juliet Street and Cato Street. 

Moore was also evacuated from his residence, saying the officers told him they were going to gas the apartment. 

Shaw said the SWAT officers broke down the door of the barricaded residence just after 11 p.m.

“It was an axe,” Shaw said. “They just chopped [the door] down, flew a drone in, and then they started shooting gas in.”

At 11:06 p.m., the University issued an ENS alert stating there was a “large police presence in the area.” At 11:26 p.m., Pitt ENS confirmed the presence of SWAT officials at the scene. 

By 11:30 p.m., Moore and his roommates had been standing on the corner of Cato Street and Juliet Street for about an hour. 

According to the Pittsburgh Public Safety Department, SWAT officers had a suspect in custody at approximately 5:30 a.m., approximately 10 hours after police were first on the scene and seven hours after students were evacuated. Pitt ENS announced the area was clear at 6:47 a.m. 

For safety updates, visit safety.pitt.edu/alerts.