A Pittsburgh police detective was shot Friday afternoon in the city’s East Hills section during an exchange of gunfire with a homicide suspect.
The suspect was fleeing from a shooting scene in Robinson, where police say he killed a motel manager about 90 minutes before a confrontation with Pittsburgh police.
Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, who heads City Council’s public safety committee, said the detective’s injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
“The officer is going to be fine,” Coghill said after being briefed by Pittsburgh’s public safety director.
The suspect was also shot and was taken to a local hospital in critical condition.
Police at the East Hills scene in the 2200 block of Wilner Drive said the officer was struck in the leg and taken to the hospital.
The officer has not been publicly identified.
The incident began at 1:04 p.m. in Robinson, when police responded to report of a shooting at the Pittsburgh Motel in the 4200 block of Steubenville Pike.
Police then received a call for another shooting victim in the 4400 block of Steubenville Pike at a business, Allegheny County Police Superintendent Christopher Kearns told reporters during a briefing at the East Hills shooting scene.
Investigators learned a man shot his “female companion” during a dispute in the motel parking lot, and she escaped.
A manager of the motel stepped outside when he heard some commotion and was fatally shot, Kearns said.
Here’s what reporters now know about the shooting @TribLIVEpic.twitter.com/bRpoM3J1Ux
— Megan Swift (@mgswift7) October 3, 2025
Daniel Bincoski, a long-term resident of the motel, which is near the Sapporo Japanese Steakhouse, said he witnessed the shooting of the hotel manager.
Bincoski said he heard two to three shots and ran out to his second-story balcony.
He told TribLive he saw the manager approach a man in the parking lot. The manager had his hands up in a questioning manner, and the man shot him in the head, Bincoski said.
The suspect drove off in what police called a U-Haul van.
Several motel occupants ran to help the manager, with one holding a towel to his head, Bincoski said.
Bincoski told TribLive he recognized the shooter as someone who had been staying in the motel for about two weeks with a woman and a baby.
Other motel residents told Bincoski that before the manager was shot, the assailant shot at the woman, who was in a car, and struck her in the neck.
The woman escaped, according to Bincoski.
Police responding to the Robinson scene put out a bulletin for a U-Haul van.
About an hour later, at 2:29 p.m., a team of Pittsburgh police detectives spotted the van in the 2200 block of Wilner Drive. The officers were in an unmarked vehicle, Kearns said.
Joined by an Allegheny County homicide detective, the city detectives approached the van and a man got out firing a gun, Kearns said.
“The detectives returned fire,” Kearns said. “Multiple shots were fired by multiple officers.”
Here’s the question and answer portion of the press conference at the site of the Pittsburgh police officer shooting @TribLIVEpic.twitter.com/5WEQXIYKuP
— Megan Swift (@mgswift7) October 3, 2025
At least a dozen police cars were still at the East Hills scene at 4:45 p.m., and police vehicles were also parked outside the Robinson motel. A dark pickup with its driver and passenger doors open was parked behind the U-Haul van.
Two unmarked police vehicles blocked the U-Haul in on either side.
County police have asked Pennsylvania State Police to investigate the East Hills shooting.
Staff writers Megan Trotter, Paula Reed Ward and Megan Swift contributed.