Apr 16, 2019 4 min read

“This is the police. Arrest warrant for Greenside Avenue. Come out with your hands up.”

The announcement was made over a loudspeaker multiple times before the Washington County SWAT team broke through the front door of the vacant Canonsburg residence Friday morning.

It was only a drill.

Usually when they’re on scene, civilians aren’t allowed close enough to catch the action.

Last week, however, when the county’s Special Weapons and Tactics team trained at the former nursing home at 119 Greenside Ave., residents were able to watch.

“It’s like any training with police work – there’s fun to it, but it’s a lot of work,” said SWAT Commander Guy Kuzak.

The county’s SWAT team is made up of police officers from nine local agencies, Kuzak said. He’s a lieutenant with Cecil Township police.

“I joined the team 10 years ago,” he said. “I’m not an office guy, that’s why I like police work to begin with. SWAT seems to be even more different than that. You get something different each call.”

The SWAT team, which includes some fire and EMS personnel, gets dispatched for “high-risk” calls to municipalities that don’t rely on state police and have members on the team. The risk is determined by a “threat matrix,” Kuzak said. It’s a point system that takes into account conditions of an incident, like whether a suspect is armed, has a dog, has a military background, or has a mental-health condition.

On average, they respond to 10 calls a year.

“The biggest trend in the country right now is getting called for suicidal people who barricade themselves in the house,” Kuzak said. “Executing search warrants is number two after that.”

The team members, or SWAT operators, train about 16 hours per month, Kuzak said. Once a year, they have a 40-hour, weeklong training, which the team completed last week at the Washington County Fire Academy on Route 519 in Chartiers Township.

On Friday, they put that training to the test. The scenario they used was the execution of an arrest warrant at the house in Canonsburg.

“I like to keep it as real as possible,” Kuzak said.

They assembled along Greenside Avenue outside of the borough’s municipal complex, before boarding the tactical SWAT vehicle, crossing Pike Street and approaching the Loubell Drive entrance of the house.

After announcing their arrival and requesting compliance, the team shot a 40-millimeter sponge round into the second-floor windows and broke through the door. Once inside, they clear all the rooms until the entire house was secure, Kuzak said.

“We don’t actually make arrests,” Kuzak said. “We’re there to make sure the house or environment is safe. We’ll detain suspects for safety reasons, but the agency with jurisdiction has the authority to arrest them.”

The house they trained in Friday presented an opportunity they don’t always get, Kuzak said.

“We train in some pretty rough places,” he said. “Usually when we get them, they’re getting ready to be burned for fire training. This one is structurally sound and isn’t a danger to us. It’s unique because it’s a very large house.”

The four-story house was purchased by the borough for about $146,000, following conversations last year about “redeveloping” and “reshaping” downtown Canonsburg, according to Mayor Dave Rhome.

“It had sat there empty for a couple years,” he said. “Sometime this summer, our hope is to tear it down and move forward with possible development there – probably a combination of commercial and residential.”

Before they tear it down, Rhome said he wanted local police and firefighters to get some “extra training under their belt.”

“Public safety is so important to me,” said Rhome, who also serves as the borough’s assistant fire chief. “It’s a huge building with lots of hallways and nooks and crannies in there.”

The fire department held a training session in the house April 8, doing search-and-rescue scenarios, hose line advancements, ground ladder training and work with their aerial ladder truck, to “keep their skills honed up,” fire Chief Tim Solobay said.

“This is training you can’t really put in place when you’re just at the fire station,” Solobay said. “It’s nice to be able to put it in a non-pressured but realistic scenario. It’s easy to do a tabletop or watch a video of what others have done – there’s nothing better than hands-on.”

The Canonsburg police department will also train in the building before it’s demolished, Chief Alex Coghill said. They’ll practice tactical entries, breeching doors and windows, room entries and clearing, working in teams, and high-risk entries using the ballistic shield, he said.