A Patton Township man is facing gun charges after police investigated a report of a shot fired inside his home.
Police say Blair A. McChesney, 20, was prohibited from possessing firearms because he was a fugitive and because of a prior conviction. He also allegedly told police that he shot himself in the leg but didn’t seek medical attention because he knew there were active warrants against him.
Patton Township Police received a report on Jan. 14 that McChesney fired a .357 Magnum in the kitchen of his Marjorie Mae Street residence, according to court documents.
On Jan. 16 police executed a search warrant on the residence and reportedly found a bullet hole in the kitchen’s tile floor and a spent round in the sub-flooring. Police say they found two handguns — a .357 Magnum and a Ruger MK III Hunter .22 semi-automatic — and ammunition in McChesney’s bedroom.
McChesney allegedly admitted to possessing the .357 Magnum and firing it into the kitchen floor, and that the gun was given to him by someone he knew. He had the gun since at least New Year’s, when he accidentally shot himself in the leg and didn’t get help because of outstanding warrants, according to the criminal complaint.
‘In fact, he kept saying that he knew that there were warrants out for him for two years,’ the complaint stated.
Police said that multiple outstanding warrants for McChesney were found in Centre County and other jurisdictions. One of the warrants, according to police, was for failure to appear for a 2015 simple assault case. A bench warrant was issued in December 2015 in that case, according to court records.
The Centre County Sheriff’s office confirmed the outstanding warrants and took McChesney into custody.
McChesney was charged with four misdemeanor counts of prohibited possession of a firearm. He was arraigned before District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker on Friday and was held at the Centre County Correctional Facility in lieu of $25,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
