PENN TWP — A man already accused of deliberately driving his pickup truck toward a tent filled with dozens of parishioners at a church picnic this month now faces five felony gun charges.

District Judge Sue Haggerty on Thursday arraigned Shawn E. McDonell, 36, of Penn Township on the latest in a list of mounting charges.

Penn Township police in the new charges allege McDonell possessed two AK-47 semi-automatic rifles and three handguns despite having a felony conviction in Virginia.

Police said they only recently learned of his felony record while investigating the defendant’s suspected assault of his wife during a July 1 domestic dispute at the couple’s home on Monaco Street.

Because of his criminal history, which includes the out-of-state felony conviction for assault, McDonell is prohibited under state law from possessing any firearms.

Penn Township officers during their domestic assault investigation of the defendant determined that since June 6 he had possessed the AK-47 rifles, two 9 mm pistols and a .380-caliber pistol, according to court documents.

Later, on the same day as the alleged assault in Pennsylvania, state police arrested McDonell after they say he tried to use his 1993 Ford pickup as a weapon at the New Life Christian Ministries on Knoch Road in Clinton Township.

He is accused of driving the truck through the parking lot, onto a grass field and toward a tent set up for a picnic.

But the pickup stopped after it got stuck in the grass, police said, just 30 feet from the tent packed with about 50 members. No one was hurt.

Church security personnel immediately rushed in and subdued McDonell until police arrived.

Police suspect the defendant was angry with church officials who had banned him from their property for an unspecified incident earlier that morning.

McDonell and his wife were recently baptized at the church, according to pastor Chris Marshall. The couple was attending services regularly but neither was a member yet.

Marshall declined to discuss what prompted the church to bar McDonell.

Troopers arrested and charged him with 50 counts of reckless endangerment and charges of simple assault, trespass, disorderly conduct and harassment.

Penn Township police, by the end of the same day, also charged the defendant with simple assault and reckless endangerment in connection with the domestic incident.

McDonell following arraignment in both cases was placed in the Butler County Prison, where he remains on $35,000 bail. On Wednesday, he gave up his right to a preliminary hearing and waived those charges to Butler County Court.

Police on Thursday charged him with five counts of illegally possessing firearms, a felony.

Additionally, in the same case, he is charged with unlawfully lending one of the 9 mm pistols to Lee S. Ketchem, 35, of Penn Township.

Investigators suspect the defendant’s wife, Michele McDonell, was with him when he gave the gun to Ketchem in Lyndora. McDonell is also charged with conspiring with his wife and Ketchem to lend the firearm.

Police have not charged either Michele McDonell or Ketchem with any crimes in that case, and it was not known if they plan to charge them.

Ketchem is being held in the county prison on $10,000 bail on unrelated charges for allegedly firing a rifle June 20 outside his grandparents’ home on Country Club Road in Penn Township.