Carnegie man charged with attempted homicide after standoff
After keeping a SWAT team at bay twice Wednesday in Monongahela, a Carnegie man is in jail facing attempted homicide and myriad other charges.
Emmanuel Caden Houghton, 19, is accused in court documents of driving a stolen vehicle and firing multiple shots at a Monongahela police vehicle during a pursuit.
The nearly daylong standoff was precipitated with a report of two stolen vehicles from a home in the 600 block of Mounds Street at 6:45 a.m. Taken were a GMC Yukon and an Acura. According to the complaint, the Acura had been unlocked and the keys left inside. The keychain also held a key to the Yukon. A doorbell camera showed that the cars were still in the driveway at about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.
According to the complaint, a traffic camera spotted the Acura at about 5 a.m. in West Mifflin.
Later Wednesday morning, police tracked the Acura to the 200 block of Chess Street in Monongahela. An officer attempted to pull the car over on West Main Street, but the driver and sole occupant, identified as Houghton, sped away, according to the complaint.
Houghton led police into Union Township, to Stone Church Road, where he fired multiple shots toward a Monongahela police vehicle and shot out the rear window of the Acura, court documents state.
At about 10:30 a.m., Houghton had returned to Monongahela and was holed up inside a home on Marne Avenue. A large police presence, including a SWAT team, formed in the area. After approximately three hours, police had mostly vacated the scene and Houghton had not been taken into custody.
Shortly before 3:30 p.m. a woman called 911 to report that a man covered in dirt and holding two handguns came out of the attic of an apartment building at the corner of Third and Chess streets. The woman said the man asked her for a vape, and she left the building.
The SWAT team returned and a second standoff ensued at the apartment building. Houghton was livestreaming on Facebook from inside the building and displayed four firearms. He also asked for his mother, who arrived at the scene to convince him to come out of the house.
After multiple attempts to lure Houghton out failed, the SWAT team used a battering ram, tear gas and pepper balls to force him from the building. At about 7:30 p.m. Houghton was taken into custody without incident. He is being held in the Washington County jail without bond, according to Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh.
It was not clear if there are other suspects in the car thefts, and charging documents for Houghton do not mention if police recovered the Yukon.
Walsh, who said Wednesday that Houghton was a suspect in an Allegheny homicide case, declined to comment on the investigation.
In addition to attempted homicide, Houghton also faces felony charges of aggravated assault, fleeing an officer, prohibited possession of a firearm and receiving stolen property.
Online court records listing a preliminary hearing date were not immediately available.