Details are still scant, but…

“I mean, he had a lot of ammunition in that house, and certainly … all of us were strapped, you know, with ammunition, and we were calling for additional ammunition,” Kraus said. “Like I said, we tried to give him every opportunity to come out.”

    …I’ll go way out on a limb and suggest that this could’ve been handled better.

  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Guy doesn’t have enough money for rent

    Guy owns enough guns and ammunition to keep the police in standoff for 6½ hours

    But housing price was the issue? 🤔

    • CADmonkey@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      How long was he collecting ammunition? Did he buy a box on payday once in a while for a few years, or did he go out to Walmart and buy everything he used?

      Everyone seems to assume that this guy found out he’d be evicted and he immediately went and bought a rifle and 20,000 rounds of ammunition that evening. Bullets don’t go bad, he probably bought them over a few years.

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        If instead of buying guns with your paycheck for years, you plopped it in an index fund, perhaps rent wouldn’t seem so out of reach.

        Edit: if you click the links within the articles and keep going, you find out he got evicted because he’s a SovCit who refused payments and wanted to fight the gov

        Sources said Hardison believed he was a sovereign citizen, meaning he thought he was exempt from the law.

        A Channel 11 News photographer discovered a video of Hardison during a prior interaction with police in 2019. In the video, you can see a Moorish flag, which is flown by Moorish sovereign citizens.

        Hardison had a criminal history dating back to at least 2000.

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yeah I travel a lot for work and 3 news articles is not what I would call “heavy reading”

            Perhaps you’d be less busy if you weren’t working retail at a gun store.

      • ReluctantMuskrat@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Not sure that’s much better. I’ve accumulated 15,000 rounds of ammo that I’ve not used but I need more… how about 20,000 rounds??

        Someone accumulating that amount of ammo “just in case” has probably got some other issues.

        • tacosplease@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Lots of people have lots of bullets. Not saying they aren’t crazy, but if they are then there’s a fuck ton of heavily armed crazy people… Ok yeah actually that checks out.

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        So? If you can’t pay your rent and face eviction you sell that shit, you don’t start shooting people doing their fucking job.

        Gun nuts are the first to speak about individual responsibility but when it’s their turn to face their responsibilities you can be sure of one thing, they ain’t facing them without a fight!

        • TechnoBabble@lemm.ee
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          This guy was a sovereign citizen, so the worst of the worst kind of crazy.

          Didn’t see that mentioned elsewhere in the thread, and it’s a big fucking detail to leave out.

    • iN8sWoRLd@lemmy.world
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      Here’s what I read - I do not have the source but it was on a local Pittsburgh news site IIRC. He wasn’t paying rent. House was his deceased brother’s house which he bought in 1998 - not sure if shooter had inherited it or not, but there was something in excess of 15K owed for back taxes on it. An LLC paid the taxes on it and BOOM its their house - he filed paperwork with the state that they were scammers and he was contesting what he saw as an someone stealing his house. The LLC filed to have him evicted. Ultimately he made a bad decision to use a weapon and not a lawyer but he was ex-military and may have seen this as the last straw.

      • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        He was a SovCit.

        Court records show the house was owned by Hardison’s brother Joseph, who died in March 2021. It was deeded to their father, William Hardison Sr., who neglected to make mortgage payments. The house was foreclosed upon and sold in March to a limited liability corporation called 907 East Street.

        William Hardison Jr. was evicted from an apartment on the Northside last year for non-payment of rent. The attorney for 907 East Street says he began squatting in the Board Street home in April, and the LLC petitioned for his eviction in May. William Jr. then filed papers in federal court accusing the new owners of fraud and trespassing, maintaining the house was his and refusing to leave – despite a judge’s order to do so.

    • orcrist@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I think guns and bullets are a lot cheaper than you think they are. You can get a gun and a thousand bullets for under $500 last I checked.

    • randon31415@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Quick google search: Average rent in Pittsburgh: $1,531. Cost per bullet: $0.08 to $3 per shot depending on size. Number of bullets shot: Well, lets assume 30/minute, as that is what I found on google as the fastest you can shoot an non-automatic (I don’t know what kind of gun he used or if he was perpetually shooting, this is just for math). So the cost of doing 30 shot/minute for 6.5 hours would be from $936 to $35,100. More for semi-automatic, less for shooting less.

      So… probably shot a month’s rent worth of bullets in those 6.5 hours. Others could get you closer, google isn’t what it use to be.

    • Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      I read it wasn’t a rent dispute but that someone bought the property because he wasn’t paying taxes. Searchig this thread for a source, though.