After refusing to leave his Garfield apartment on the grounds that he was a sovereign citizen and didn’t have to abide by the rules of this nation, a Black man was killed during a confrontation with deputies.
William Hardison Sr., a 63-year-old who identified nationally as a Moor, exchanged hundreds of rounds of gunfire with law enforcement after they came to evict him from the property on the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 23.
Seven deputies arrived at his home around 11 a.m. to get Hardison out of the apartment. Deputies said they attempted to reason with him, but he would not concede.
“We tried to make contact, we were outside the house, called for him, tried to bring him out peacefully to execute the order, but clearly that was not on the cards today,” Allegheny County Sheriff Kevin Kraus said to reporters.
What should have been a simple removal escalated quickly. Hardison fired his guns from the first and second-floor windows and through walls at the officers.
“He had a lot of ammunition in that house, we were all strapped with ammunition, but all had to call for more ammunition,” Kraus said. “We tried to give him every opportunity to come out, but it elevated to the SWAT team’s response.”
