Police: New Kensington man handed gun to woman, asked her to shoot another man

A New Kensington man is accused of pointing a gun at a man on the street Saturday before handing the weapon to a woman and telling her to shoot the man.

Police charged Thomas Lee Burruss, 47, with illegally possessing a firearm and simple assault. Burruss is prohibited from having a gun because of a previous conviction for robbery in 2007.

No charges have been filed against the woman police said was with Burruss, according to court records.

Police responded to the area of Seventh Street and Young Avenue shortly before noon Saturday for a report of a man threatening another person with a firearm, according to a criminal complaint.

A woman told police that she and her boyfriend left a bar on Seventh Street and were walking home when an SUV occupied by Burruss and a woman pulled over near them, the complaint states.

The woman told police Burruss got out and pointed a gun at her boyfriend, then handed the gun to the other woman, telling her to shoot the man, police said.

The woman’s boyfriend gave a similar account, the complaint said.

Police said they found the gun inside the SUV. It did not have a round in the chamber but had 15 rounds in a magazine, according to the complaint. A search for the gun’s serial number came back with no record found, police said.

Burruss told police that the man threatened them and that the gun belonged to the woman he was with, according to the complaint.

Burruss was arraigned Sunday and sent to the Westmoreland County jail on $5,000 bond.

He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Feb. 22 before New Kensington District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr.