State police charged a Jeannette man on Tuesday with repeatedly threatening to harm a baby boy after abandoning the toddler’s mother in Hempfield during a weekend argument.
Timothy J. Mooney Sr., 45, who also has a Homewood address, was arraigned on charges of endangering the welfare of a child and driving on a DUI-suspended license and multiple counts of terroristic threats. He is charged in connection with an incident that began around 8 p.m. Sunday at the GetGo convenience store off Route 30 in Hempfield Square Plaza and ended in Pittsburgh with city police detaining Mooney early Monday.
“The 1-year-old victim was found (with Mooney) unharmed,” Trooper Robert Politowski said.
Police responded to the GetGo after receiving reports of a couple involved in a physical argument, both inside and outside of the business, Politowski reported. The woman told troopers that Mooney struck her with a closed fist inside the store during the argument.
After exiting, Mooney drove off with the boy in a black Mercedes Benz vehicle, Politowski reported.
After Mooney drove off, Politowski reported that he repeatedly called and texted the woman’s cell phone “and threatened to kill (her) and one-year-old child.” At one point, police said, Mooney claimed “the baby was already dead.” The woman provided troopers with copies of numerous threatening text messages she said Mooney sent her during the incident, according to court records.
According to online court dockets, Mooney has a criminal record dating back to the mid-1990s with convictions for assaults, driving under the influence, drug possession and thefts in Allegheny, Clearfield, Erie, Jefferson, Venango and Washington counties.
He was recently ordered to stand trial in Allegheny County after an Oct. 27 arrest by Duquesne police for illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. In 2018, he was charged with arson and criminal trespass in Erie, but the charges were reduced to a single criminal mischief count. He served about one month in jail after pleading guilty.
Mooney was ordered held in the Westmoreland County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bond in connection with Sunday’s incident. A hearing is slated Feb. 12.
