A woman was hospitalized after being stabbed in East Allegheny, leading to a standoff that ended with the suspect’s arrest.
PITTSBURGH —
A stabbing on Suismon Street in East Allegheny early Thursday morning led to a three-hour standoff with police, ending with a teenage suspect being taken into custody.
Police said a woman was found with a stab wound to the abdomen and was taken to the hospital in serious but stable condition.
The victim’s mother, who arrived at the scene later, said her daughter had just turned 18 and was from the Brookline area. She added that the victim and the suspect were supposed to be friends.
SWAT, negotiators, and a drone unit responded to the scene. Officers used a loudspeaker to address the suspect, saying, “You’re under arrest, you have no avenue to escape, come out now or we cannot guarantee your safety.”
Crews at the scene witnessed a flashbang go off inside the home, followed by a second one a few minutes later.
The incident began shortly after 2 a.m. when police responded to the home and found the injured woman. Officials said the 17-year-old suspect then barricaded herself inside the home.
The standoff ended when a K-9 unit removed the suspect from the home, and she was taken into custody. Police said the suspect is being charged as an adult with aggravated assault.
Neighbors described the area as generally quiet but raised concerns about the increasing number of short-term rentals. Callie DiSabato, a neighbor, said, “My initial reaction is just like this is the solvable problem. We continue to talk about this only when we see, like these symptoms bursting up a violence which is horrible and should not be happening and is also the aberration about short-term rentals, like they’re a problem all the time.”
A witness, who spoke off-camera, said the two women had been arguing for hours before the confrontation turned physical outside. According to the witness, the victim had been throwing bricks at the home and shouting before the suspect stabbed her.
This incident is not the first violent occurrence involving Airbnbs in the area. On January 1, there was a shooting at an Airbnb on Constance Street, which intersects Suismon Street. In 2022, a deadly mass shooting at another Airbnb on Suismon Street killed two people and injured 10 others.
DiSabato said, “We’ve seen three instances of public violence in short-term rentals in just this small block radius. It’s also shouldn’t be surprising to find that this small block radius has a huge amount of Airbnbs. We see these like instances of physical, of horrible physical violence. I would say it’s also deeply violent to be allowing an extractive housing policy like we have here in Pittsburgh.”
The suspect was transported to a nearby hospital before being taken to the Allegheny County Jail.