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Police Shooting Suspect Lived Quietly, Neighbors Say

WEBSTER (KDKA) -- Eli Myers, the man accused of killing a part-time East Washington Borough police officer and injuring another, lived a quiet existence inside his home in Webster, Westmoreland County.

Myers was fatally shot by police Monday morning during a standoff outside his home. He allegedly shot and killed East Washington Police Officer John Dryer and wounded Officer Robert Caldwell.

Neighbors are trying to make sense of what happened.

"Eli never bothered anybody," Pat Creighton said. "I don't know what happened to him."

Even back when Myers was a part-time police officer for the West Newton Police Department, he had a reputation for keeping to himself.

"Something must have set him off," Creighton said. "You know, like I said, he never bothered anybody. … When I knew him he was a nice person."

Police surrounded Myers' house and he refused to come out for hours.

"We heard, 'Put the gun down! Put the gun down!'" Mark Lawson, a neighbor, said.

"I heard them pumping a bunch of the CS gas and stuff in there and then they were telling him over the loud speaker to stay down and after that they told him to come out with his hands up and then you heard a couple shots and then just went crazy after that," a neighbor told KDKA-TV.

Because Myers kept to himself, few people could even begin to explain or even understand how the man who lived there four years ended up in a police shooting.

"It's just hard to believe that, you know, our neighbors are doing that kind of thing and we just wanted it to end in a good way," Lawson said.

The broken windows and bullet holes at Myers' home will serve as a reminder of the violence that took place in the days to come.

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