Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Friday that Pittsburgh police were justified in using deadly force against a woman in February incident.

Responding officers shot Adrienne Arrington, 39, of Homestead, five times on Feb. 24 in Allentown. Zappala said she fired multiple shots at the officers from a vacant house on Engstler Street and when she exited the building.

Zappala said Arrington had a history of mental health problems, and her blood alcohol level at the time of her death was 0.461%, nearly six times the legal limit.

Arrington’s husband, Michael Dickison, said he has never heard from police or the DA’s office about their findings, and was never formally interviewed by them.

Still, he recognized the mental health struggles his wife was experiencing at the time.

Dickison said she left him a voicemail just before she walked out of the Allentown house and was shot by police. In it, Dickison said she told him, “Sorry, Michael. It had to end this way.”

According to a video briefing released by the district attorney’s office on Friday, police were called to the abandoned home around 3 p.m. It previously had been in Arrington’s family, and her mother and brother had died there, Dickison said.

When they first arrived, officers told Arrington to come out of the home, but she responded by telling them to come in.

Moments later, according to body camera footage shown in the video, one shot is fired. The officers took cover and called for backup, prompting 20 more officers to come to the scene.

Six more shots were fired from inside the home, Zappala said. Then the woman exited the house, holding a .38-caliber revolver and pointing it at officers.

She shot at them again, prompting them to return fire, hitting her five times, Zappala said.

While investigators processed the scene, Zappala said, Dickison arrived.

He told them that the house had belonged to her family, and that her brother had recently died there.

“On prior occasions, he had found Adrienne in a tent in there,” Zappala said.

In the video, the district attorney said that the officers were justified in their actions given that Arrington fired at them.

Five officers involved in the shooting were placed on leave after the incident. They were cleared to return to work the second week in March, a Department of Public Safety spokeswoman said.

“In this case, there’s no question,” Zappala said. “She came out, she raised her weapon she had shot previously, and the officers, their lives were in danger.”

In 2022, Dickison said he recognized his wife was experiencing mental health issues, so he took her to UPMC Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, where she remained for about 10 days.

When she got out, she was on medication, he said.

Dickison said his wife previously worked as a pharmacy technician for UPMC and most recently worked at PNC, reviewing documents.

The couple were married for 10 years and had known each other since elementary school.

“This was the love of my life,” Dickison said.

He said his wife was generous and enjoyed helping people. She also loved hosting parties with her friends.

He said they had been talking about having a baby a week before Arrington was killed.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Dickison said.

Dickison said he’d asked Arrington to stop going to the house in Allentown, but that she wanted to take some mementos from there.

“I told her to get everything out so she wouldn’t have to go back there.”