Person in custody after large police presence shut down Parkway West in Green Tree
GREEN TREE, Pa. —
A person has been taken into custody by Pennsylvania State Police after an incident on the Parkway West.
PennDOT said Interstate 376 was closed in both directions between Exit 64A (I-79) and Exit 67 (Route 121/Green Tree/Mt. Lebanon) for police activity on Thursday afternoon.
Sky 4, Pittsburgh’s only news chopper, was over the scene where multiple police cruisers and an empty vehicle could be seen on the shoulder of the parkway.
Sky 4 also captured the moment the suspect appeared to be taken into custody.
Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 has reached out to authorities to learn what led to the arrest.
Pennsylvania State Police have made no comment yet, other than to confirm that a person was in custody and that there is “no threat to the public at this time.”
“There was more state police on our street than I care to see ever again,” said Christine Short, who lives on Parkedge Road, which is adjacent to the parkway.
Residents were told to stay inside and lock their doors during the investigation.
“We were just in the basement. We have windows out there. We saw a cop standing in our backyard, and he told us to kind of turn around and lock the doors,” Parkedge Road resident Lee Shearn told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 reporter Jordan Cioppa.
A spokesperson for Keystone Oaks School District said there was a lockdown at Aiken Elementary School on Greentree Road because of police activity near Wilson Park.
Julie Balcerek, the mother of a Keystone Oaks Middle School student, said parents were told they could pick their kids up since buses weren’t able to transport them at the time.
“We got a notification a little after 3, where it said that her bus was not going to be leaving the school and that the kids were going to be placed in the gymnasium there,” Balcerek said.
The district said the lockdown was lifted around 3:40 p.m.
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