SWAT Responds To 2 City Incidents Minutes Apart

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – It was a tense night in two neighborhoods, as SWAT was called to two locations in the City of Pittsburgh.

The first incident happened in Hazelwood just before 5 p.m.

Police were called to Flowers Avenue for a man who was robbed by four men with guns. He claimed the robbers ran into a nearby house.

SWAT members surrounded the house and searched the neighbor's home too.

"We checked the house, checked the neighbor's house, where the one actor was known to frequent. We did not find any actors here, but we do have names of the actors involved, and we will continue to go forward with warrants for their arrests," Pittsburgh Police Commander Kathy Degler said.

At the same time, SWAT was also called to the 300-block of Climax Street in Beltzhoover.

Police say detectives tried to pull over a car for traffic violations, but the driver took off. A short time later, the driver jumped out of the car and ran into a house along Climax Street.

Everyone inside the house was able to make it out safely.

K-9 units were also called in, because the home had three dogs in the backyard.

Negotiators tried to reach the man inside to get him to surrender. When that failed, members of the SWAT team entered the home and found the suspect hiding in an unusual spot.

"He had actually burrowed into the wall and under the floor space, before we are able to get him into custody. We actually had to deploy the K-9 units, then had to deploy pepper spray in order to get him to come out of the crawl space," Pittsburgh Police Commander RaShall Brackney said.

Theodore Elliot, 24, of Beltzhoover, was arrested. He was taken to the hospital for treatment of a dog bite to his hand and for breathing difficulty due to the insulation that was in his hiding spot.

After being treated, he'll be taken to the Allegheny County Jail.

Stay with KDKA for more information.

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