Home >  Local News >  Neighborhoods

Sunday, August 11, 2002

By Cindi Lash, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A man who repeatedly threatened to kill his estranged wife was shot and seriously wounded last night after city police stormed the house in Brookline where he had been holding her at gunpoint for nearly four hours.

	A woman who was held hostage by her estranged husband, David Thompson, for more than four hours yesterday is comforted by a Pittsburgh police officer across from her home in Brookline. A SWAT team shot and injured Thompson after he refused to drop his gun, police said. Police declined to identify the wife. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette)

David Thompson, 30, was shot once in the face after SWAT officers swarmed into the house at 909 Bayridge Ave. and confronted him on the second floor shortly after 8 p.m. One officer, who also was not identified, fired one shot, striking Thompson, after Thompson refused to drop a handgun that he was pointing at his estranged wife, Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr. said.

Another officer used his body to shield Thompson's sobbing wife as he rushed her out of the house and across the street to safety. Thompson was taken to Mercy Hospital, where he was in stable condition last night. His wife, who police declined to identify, was not injured.

McNeilly said police entered the house after Sgt. Stephen Matakovich, one of three officers who negotiated by telephone with Thompson, said he believed Thompson was determined to follow through with his threat to kill his wife.

"[Matakovich] was certain that he meant it," McNeilly said. "It's unfortunate that he was intent that this would turn out this way. The negotiator feels very badly, but he tried very hard to make this turn out differently."

The shooting ended a standoff that began at 4:28 p.m. when Thompson showed up at the Bayridge Avenue house, where his wife and two children now live. Police said Thompson and his wife had been separated for about 18 months, but they did not know what prompted him to come to his wife's house yesterday.

Thompson's wife called 911 to report her estranged husband was breaking into her house, McNeilly said. While she was on the phone, a dispatcher heard gunshots in the background; neighbors said they heard as many as four shots.

When police from Pittsburgh and the neighboring communities of Mt. Lebanon and Baldwin Township arrived, they learned that Thompson was still inside and was holding his wife and children -- a 3-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy -- at gunpoint. McNeilly said police immediately sent out a call for a hostage negotiator and located three, including Matakovich, another city officer and an officer from the Mt. Lebanon force.

Officers were able to reach Thompson by telephone within 20 minutes and began negotiating with him to free his family and surrender. Within the hour, the children fled through the back door of the house, but the woman remained inside.

The children were examined by paramedics, then released to their grandmother. Negotiators continued to try to persuade Thompson to free his wife and come out, but were unable to do so.

Other officers and paramedics surrounded the house, keeping neighbors and onlookers at a distance and blocking off intersections. Few of the neighbors who watched from their porches said they knew the family that lived in the neat red-brick, white-trimmed Colonial house where police in helmets and bulletproof vests now crouched outside behind cars and trees.

At about 7 p.m., a woman who was identified as Thompson's aunt drove onto the street with a male companion and attempted to run to the house. Paramedics stopped the woman, who would not give her name, and sent her to talk with police after she said she believed she might be able to persuade Thompson to come out.

But an hour later, McNeilly said, Thompson's threats had not abated. A line of SWAT officers formed outside, then rushed into the house.

On the second floor, McNeilly said, Thompson was holding a gun to his wife's head. When he refused to drop the gun, an officer fired one shot, the chief said.

McNeilly said police had not immediately determined if the couple had a past history of disputes. Police had not immediately determined all of the charges to be filed against Thompson.

Cindi Lash can be reached at clash@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1973.