The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH- Police cordoned off downtown streets and SWAT teams searched buildings Wednesday for a possible sniper with a rifle, but it turned out be a man with a pellet gun that he used to shoot pigeons.
Police Chief Dom Costa didn’t immediately say if charges would be filed.
A caller to 911 reported reported seeing a man dressed partly in camouflage and carrying what appeared to be a rifle equipped with a telescopic or laser gunsight, police at the scene said.
Mayor Bob O’Connor, wearing a bulletproof vest, called the man a “presumed sniper.”
However, after focusing on a building in the city’s theater district, police said they had located the man’s supervisor, who said the man sometimes takes his pellet gun to work to shoot pigeons. Police did not release the man’s name or say what his job is.