Police: Cache of guns, large amount of ammunition seized from Monessen felon
MONESSEN – A cache of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition were seized Tuesday from a felon in Monessen, city police claim in court documents.
Sixteen weapons were seized from Richard William Hatfield after his state parole officer performed a compliance check on his 126 Donner Ave. residence about 7:15 a.m., Monessen police state in court documents.
Another man with an arson conviction, Shaka Lani Tansmore, 23, of the same address, was taken into custody on drug charges during the same search of the residence, police said.
A third man in the residence, Raymie George Burger, 19, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and released on $1,000 unsecured bond, online court records indicate.
Police said the bulk of the weapons were discovered in a safe in a storage unit Hatfield rented at Meo’s Storage, 111 Donner Ave. Also found in the storage unit were nearly 13,000 rounds of ammunition, 65 AR-15 magazines and 35 semiautomatic handgun magazines.
Hatfield, 22, is prevented from having firearms because he has been convicted of felony drug trafficking, police stated in the affidavit.
The initial search of the residence produced a loaded .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol that had been stored in Hatfield’s bedroom, court records allege.
A tactical shotgun equipped with a suppressor was found under a couch in the living room that had been turned into Tansmore’s bedroom. Police said they also seized from Tansmore 80 Xanax tablets, 2.8 grams of cocaine and $580, the records show.
Tansmore is charged with illegal possession of a firearm, drug possession with intent to deliver, conspiracy to deliver drugs, drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia. He is in Westmoreland County jail on $10,000 bond set Wednesday by a senior district judge in Monessen.
Hatfield is jailed there on $25,000 bond on charges of illegal possession of firearms, possession of a firearm with an altered manufacturer’s number, conspiracy to deliver drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia.