Police say New Kensington man arrested after gun went off while he wrestled with woman during fight

A New Kensington man faces felony charges after a gun went off while he was wrestling for it during an argument with a woman, authorities say.

Police said the bullet traveled outside the home through a wall in the kitchen, which is next to a bedroom where a young child was sleeping. Two other children were asleep in an upstairs bedroom, police said.

No one was struck by gunfire.

Jacquinn Devoughn Jean Trammell, 27, of the 500 block of Sixth Avenue was charged with felony counts of strangulation and aggravated assault, along with possession of an instrument of crime, making terroristic threats, simple assault, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief, in connection with the Jan. 18 incident, according to court records.

Police responding to a 911 call for an unknown disturbance shortly after 6:30 a.m. at a home in the 1300 block of Kenneth Avenue said Trammell was coming out of the house with a pistol in his left hand and a rifle in his right when officers arrived, according to a criminal complaint.

Trammell followed orders to put down the guns, which were pointed toward the sky.

The handgun was a .380-caliber Smith & Wesson semiautomatic that was loaded with six rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber, police said. The rifle had a loaded, drum-style magazine but was not ready to be fired.

The woman told police she became upset the previous evening after finding the names of other women in Trammell’s cellphone, the complaint said. She said she went to a bar about 7 p.m. and stayed until 2 a.m. She was at a friend’s house until she returned home about 6 a.m., according to the complaint.

The woman told police the fight began while she was lying in bed, and Trammell poured dirty water from an ashtray on her.

The woman told police Trammell punched her in the stomach and tried to grab her purse, where she kept her pistol, but she was able to get to the gun before he did, the complaint said.

She told police she went to the kitchen, unlocked the back door and was pointing the gun at Trammell as she ordered him to leave, the complaint said.

The woman told investigators Trammell charged at her and tried to grab the gun, and it discharged. She said her finger was not on the trigger while they were wrestling for the weapon, according to the complaint.

Police said they traced the pistol through the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and determined it is registered to the woman.

Investigators said the rifle had no current owner listed. When they traced it to the original buyer and questioned him, he told police it was sold to a man named “Quinn,” who police identified as Trammell, the complaint said.

Trammell is not permitted to possess a firearm because he was found guilty in 2011, when he was 16, of risking a catastrophe, according to police.

When police questioned Trammell about what happened, he gave a different account, they said.

Trammell said he got angry when the woman returned home about 5 a.m. because she left her three children with him to go drinking the night before, and he had to go to work that morning, the complaint said.

He told police he was being “petty” when he poured the water on the woman. He said he took the holstered gun from her purse in the bedroom and placed it on the sofa in the downstairs living room, according the complaint.

He said the woman grabbed the gun while they were arguing and pointed it at him, the complaint said.

Trammell told police the gun went off when he tackled the woman to try to get it away from her, according to his arrest papers.

Trammell was released from custody after posting a $25,000 unsecured bond. He faces a preliminary hearing before District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr. on March 2.