Harrisville man gets gun charge
MUDDY CREEK TWP — A Harrisville man was arrested after state police say he was caught with a loaded pistol and its serial number removed.
The defendant, 26-year-old Shane J. Carr, also did not have a concealed carry license for the handgun last week, when police stopped him in a car for speeding on Interstate 79 in Muddy Creek Township.
Carr was arraigned on a pair of felony weapons charges and two misdemeanor drug charges and placed in Butler County Prison on $25,000 bail.
Police said they were running a radar check at about 6:30 a.m. Friday on I-79, about one mile north of the Route 422 interchange, when they clocked Carr's car traveling 93 mph in a 70 mph zone.
Carr eventually exited the highway and pulled into the Pilot truck stop on Route 422.
An officer approached the car and Carr apologized, saying he was “really late” for work, according to court documents.
The officer looked into the vehicle, noticed a semi-automatic handgun on the front passenger seat and drew his service pistol, police said.
Carr was pulled out of the vehicle and handcuffed.
When the officer got a better look at the gun, documents said, he saw that it was a 9 mm Star Firestar. It was loaded with a magazine and a hollow point round in the chamber, and the hammer was in the cocked position.
The gun's serial number also had been filed off.
Carr told police that he found the pistol earlier that morning, on top of a trash can, when he stopped for gas at a convenience store in Harrisville.
He claimed he “didn't know what to do with it,” according to a police affidavit, “but figured his boss would know.”
Carr recounted that he put the gun in his car and left the store without pumping any gas.
An inventory search of the car subsequently turned up a small amount of marijuana and two marijuana pipes.
Police said after Carr was taken to the barracks, his account of how he came to be in possession of the gun changed a bit.
This time, documents said, Carr said he did not know what gas station he was at when he found the pistol, which was inside a trash can.
Police were apparently not buying either story and confronted Carr about what they believed were lies.
In yet another version, documents said, Carr claimed he found the gun along the road somewhere and had it for about a year.
“He believes a known person named J. Martin is responsible for the pistol,” the affidavit said.
Police on Monday acknowledged they have no information about the supposed J. Martin.
They said they also hope crime lab technicians can raise the serial number from the seized gun.
Carr is charged with altering or obliterating marks of identification on a firearm, possession of a gun without a carry license, possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, speeding and not wearing a seat belt.
