ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — There’s a warrant out for the arrest of Ernest Hardman for a long list of charges, after a violent attack on a Giant Eagle employee and subsequent crimes.
Court paperwork says Hardman brutally assaulted an employee at the Crafton Giant Eagle on July 20. According to court paperwork, Hardman approached an employee after the store closed and said he left his wallet inside. Police say the employee told him the store was closed for the night and he didn’t have a key. Police paperwork says there was an altercation and the employee was punched in the face.
Police said “there was blood on the door” and the worker was “dizzy from being punched in the face” and “had a swollen lip and scratches on his neck.”
A man who knows the injured employee tells Channel 11 he wondered where he’d been on his recent stops to the store and said he wouldn’t hurt a fly.
“He was really nice guy. We were both Astro fans. That’s why we always talked to him. I’d tell him, ‘Nice hat!’”
While police were searching for their suspect, court paperwork says they got a frantic call from a nearby apartment building. Neighbors tell Channel 11 the same man buzzed himself in the building and threatened to shoot.
Police say a woman was hanging out a second-story window when officers got there. Surveillance pictures show the suspect beating on a set of doors. Neighbors say a woman, fearing for her life, passed three children out the window to a good Samaritan down below.
“I’d feel terrified,” Nigeria Barlow tells Channel 11. “Why would you do that? Why would you go into someone else’s apartments and threaten people?”
The people we talked to say the suspect is lucky someone didn’t act in self-defense.
“That’s why you carry guns, that’s why you’re allowed to carry guns.”
Police say an anonymous tip and Allegheny County Police’s facial recognition technology used on surveillance pictures led them directly to Hardman.
“It is unnerving, it is definitely unnerving. People like him deserve jail. They deserve to go to jail,” Barlow said.
Channel 11 dug into Hardman’s criminal history. He was on trial for murder in 2019 and was acquitted. He was convicted of intimidating a witness in that same case.
Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
This browser does not support the video element.