Man caught in gunfire exchange between police, shooting suspect in Brackenridge shares his story

BRACKENRIDGE, Pa. — Rapid gunfire was heard as officers and the suspect Aaron Swan Jr. fired back and forth at the end of this street.

“I got down on the front of my work van here so he couldn’t see me and all I heard was gunfire going off everywhere,” Todd Pierce said.

Scared senseless and running on adrenaline, Pierce was caught in the middle of an exchange of gunfire between two police officers and Swan.

With a gun in his face and his children just steps away, he decided he had to act.

“He shot through my window here shattered it,” Pierce said.

More than a dozen bullet holes now cover Pierce’s home and vehicles, but he’s thankful to be alive. It all started when Swan approached him demanding the keys to his truck pulling a gun out of his pocket.

“I grabbed the barrel of the gun and the butt of the gun and pushed it down towards the ground he shot but hit the ground and I pulled the gun away from him,” Pierce said.

Pierce said Swan had another gun and went to the back of his truck as two officers came running and that’s when he crawled under his vehicle to avoid being hit.

“I was looking this way he was standing over here and that’s when I heard him say I’m hit I’m hit and he ran back down toward 3rd avenue,” Pierce said.

That was the Tarentum officer who was shot in the leg. Pierce said at this point Swan ran through his garage and appeared to escape onto the next street.

“It was very scary he could have taken more innocent lives,” Pierce said.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW

Brackenridge police chief killed, another officer injured in shooting; suspect shot, killed

©2023 Cox Media Group