By Jim Smith

Butler Eagle Staff Writer

Butler police arrested a city man on charges he allowed an 11-year-old girl to handle a loaded handgun.

Surveillance footage captured the alleged crime Saturday afternoon in back of the Butler Public Library, police said.

The suspect, 22-year-old James Howard-George, was arraigned later that night on felony and other charges, and he remains in the Butler County Prison on $100,000 bail.

A tip shortly before 3 p.m. Saturday led police to a Dumpster in back of the library on North McKean Street. Patrolman Travis Buckshire searched the garbage bin where he found a .380-caliber pistol, police said.

The gun was loaded with a magazine clip that held five live rounds.

Police checked the National Crime Information Center database but could find no record of the gun, according to court documents.

But investigators soon had a suspect following a review of surveillance video from the library.

The video showed Howard-George, accompanied by an 11-year-old girl, walk up to the Dumpster on Cedar Street, lift his shirt and remove an object from his waistband, police said.

He placed the object, believed to be a handgun, in the garbage bin. Several minutes later, documents said, the girl picked up the gun from the Dumpster while Howard-George watched.

The child eventually put the gun back into the Dumpster before she and the defendant left.

Within 90 minutes of recovering the pistol, Buckshire interviewed the suspect, who acknowledged his actions as they appeared on the surveillance footage, documents said.

District Judge Sue Haggerty arraigned Howard-George on a felony charge of carrying a concealed firearm without a license, and misdemeanor charges of child endangerment, corruption of minors and reckless endangerment.