A Lower Burrell resident told police they were standing near their kitchen window Saturday evening when they heard a “pop,” followed by a loud ringing in their ears and the feeling of glass hitting their face.
They figured it had to have been a bullet fired from the house next door, and called police. An hours-long standoff followed that ended after the neighbor, Jordan Blaise Lindner, fired shots at police who fired back, hitting him.
Lindner, 29, was flown to a hospital in Pittsburgh. He is expected to survive, according to the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s office.
Lower Burrell police charged Lindner with aggravated assault, discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure and recklessly endangering another person.
According to a criminal complaint against Lindner, his next-door neighbors on Rodgers Drive had experienced unusual behavior from him before. They described Lindner as a “recluse” for the last few years, who police determined lived alone in his house. Lindner’s relatives told police there were multiple guns inside his house.
The neighbors told police that Lindner walked into their house uninvited last summer, and gave them a calendar from 2016, the complaint states. Believing Lindner was suffering from some type of mental health episode, they talked with him to get him to leave.
On Friday, one of the neighbors was walking on the street when he heard a man banging something inside Lindner’s house and yelling “shut the hell up.” The neighbor felt the anger was directed at him, so he went home, the complaint states.
Lindner’s neighbors called 911 around 6:20 p.m. Saturday, reporting that he had fired a bullet into their home, where six people were inside at the time.
They determined Lindner’s home was the only logical place the bullet could have come from because there is a short distance between the houses, and there are windows on Lindner’s house that are directly across from their kitchen window, according to the complaint.
As Lower Burrell officers approached Lindner’s house, officers saw a person on the main level placing a curtain over a window, the complaint states. A man opened the front door, yelled, “You’re the reason I keep having to kill myself,” and went back inside.
He opened the door again and yelled, “Just shoot me” twice at officers, according to the complaint.
While authorities had previously said negotiators were unable to talk with Lindner, the police affidavit filed in support of the charges against him says they did make contact around 8:50 p.m. According to the court filing, Lindner said “stop calling and the terrorists are attacking him.”
Authorities said Lindner fired multiple rounds through a window at officers, who returned fire, striking him.
Police have not said how many times Lindner was shot, or provided information on his condition beyond that he is expected to survive.
No officers were hurt.