Fugitive Leroy Harris, who eluded police on Thursday after firing shots at them during a standoff in Clairton, died yesterday in a storm of police bullets in a vacant lot off Route 30 in North Huntingdon.

State troopers said Mr. Harris, wanted in a 2007 double homicide in McKeesport, shot a sheriff's deputy in the leg before police killed him a few hundred feet from a bustling Sheetz convenience store.

The deputy, Ronald N. Stokes Jr., was being treated yesterday at Allegheny General Hospital for a wound to the calf.

Dozens of state troopers and Allegheny County detectives spent hours late yesterday combing the scene, where Mr. Harris' body lay under a sheet surrounded by at least 19 shell casings.

His own pistol was at his side.

The exchange of gunfire happened about 1 p.m., while motorists drove by and others pumped gas at the Sheetz, but no one else was injured.

"This could have been a lot worse, not only for the officers but for the community," said state police spokeswoman Trooper Jeanne Martin as traffic backed up on Route 30. "As you can see, this is an extremely busy area."

The sheriff's fugitive task force had tracked Mr. Harris, 24, to North Huntingdon, where police believe he and an unidentified woman spent the night at the Hiland Terrace Motel on Route 30, about a half-mile from the Sheetz.

A clerk at the motel who declined to be identified said he did not see Mr. Harris on Thursday night because the woman checked in, although he did briefly see their red Cadillac outside.

Police had sealed off Room 22 yesterday to search for evidence.

At about 1 p.m., Mr. Harris apparently left the motel, walking along the highway and up a hill toward the Sheetz at Route 30 and Carpenter Lane.

Jason Antesberger, 22, who was working outside another motel nearby, saw Mr. Harris walk past, dressed in a baggy flannel shirt and sporting the beginnings of a beard "as if he hadn't shaved for a few days."

"I said, 'Hey, man, what's up?' He didn't say anything. Not three minutes later, all of that happened."

Witnesses said they heard screeching tires, yelling and then a series of shots.

Trooper Martin said two state troopers from the Greensburg barracks who were assisting the task force spotted Mr. Harris walking through the vacant lot along the highway and pulled over to confront him, ordering him to stop and show his hands.

She said he refused and kept walking toward another group of troopers and deputies who were converging on him.

When they confronted him, she said, he immediately drew his gun and fired the shot that hit Deputy Stokes.

The other officers opened fire and killed him.

The day before, police had cornered Mr. Harris in a house in the 500 block of Wilson Avenue in Clairton. He fired several shots at the officers before vanishing.

Mr. Harris was wanted in the 2007 slayings of James Robertson and Dominique Cochran in McKeesport. He failed to appear for an arraignment and preliminary hearing in the case and had remained a fugitive.

It wasn't clear yesterday if police had found the woman with whom Mr. Harris apparently spent the night or if they had located the couple's Cadillac.

But another woman, Mr. Harris' sister, was in custody on charges of hiding him from authorities the day before.

Police said Genesis Harris, 27, of McKeesport, was arraigned Thursday night on charges of hindering the apprehension of a suspect. She was held in the Allegheny County Jail on $5,000 bail, pending a preliminary hearing.