Man arrested following shootout with police in McDonald
Suspect taken into custody after SWAT teams called to scene
Courtesy of McDonald Police Department
A man was taken into custody Monday night after he barricaded himself inside his McDonald home following a wellness check and then allegedly fired numerous shots at responding police officers.
McDonald police officers were called to the 300 block of Fairmont Street shortly after 7:30 p.m. and were met by two Washington County mental health crisis workers who had gone to the house for a welfare check.
The man, identified by McDonald police as Stephen Joseph Budai, apparently told officers to shoot him before he went into the house and barricaded himself inside. Police officers from McDonald Borough, Cecil Township and Mt. Pleasant Township then evacuated the two crisis workers from the area before Budai reemerged from the house and allegedly began firing on them, police said.
A McDonald police SUV sustained numerous gunshots in which a window was shattered, tires were flattened, windshield had a bullet hole in it and a door was struck by ammunition. Other vehicles and buildings in the neighborhood were also struck by the gunfire, police said.
Police officers put up a perimeter around Budai’s home, and SWAT teams from both Washington and Allegheny counties were called to the scene. Investigators did not say whether police officers at the scene exchanged gunfire with Budai.
“The male continued to fire shots throughout the duration of the incident,” Allegheny County police wrote in a statement about the incident. “Multiple police and civilian vehicles were hit, but no injuries were reported.”
Following hours of negotiations, Budai peacefully surrendered to police shortly after 11 p.m. and was taken into custody, Allegheny County police said. He was taken to an area hospital for a mental health evaluation, and Allegheny County police are leading the investigation since that section of McDonald Borough is on the other side of the county line.
Online court records show Budai, 45, was arraigned Tuesday morning by District Judge Daniel Butler in Pittsburgh on four felony counts of aggravated assault and multiple misdemeanor charges of possessing an instrument of crime and reckless endangerment. Budai was denied bond, and he was taken to the Allegheny County Jail while awaiting his preliminary hearing, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 15 at 10 a.m. No attorney was listed for Budai in court documents.