Police: Wanted parolee fires round into house wanting to get caught

WILKES-BARRE — A man wanted by state parole agents told city police he intentionally fired a round into an occupied house to get caught, according to court records.

Police arrested Charles P. Baldrica, 38, after investigating a bullet hole through a window at a home on Andover Street on Monday.

The Andover Street homeowner told police he heard gunfire at about 2 a.m. but did not discover his house was struck until 10:25 a.m.

Police said the round passed through the window and struck a kitchen table. The slug was recovered from the kitchen floor, police said.

No injuries were reported in the gunfire.

Police traced the trajectory of the round to 166 Andover St.

After officers knocked on the door and hearing the voices of at least two men, a woman answered and acknowledged she owned a .38-caliber handgun. She denied anyone fired the handgun and claimed she was sleeping the entire night.

She told officers her son was the only person inside the house besides her.

Police said the woman refused to allow officers to enter her house and declined to turn over the handgun until she was given a search warrant.

As an officer prepared a search warrant, other officers kept the woman’s house under surveillance.

Police said the woman and Baldrica emerged from the house with her carrying a broken gun box that contained a .380-caliber Ruger semi-automatic handgun with an empty magazine.

Baldrica admitted he shot into the residence “on purpose” from the roof of 166 Andover St. to get someone to call police, according the criminal complaint.

If police had responded at the time of the shooting, Baldrica allegedly said he would have turned himself in.

Baldrica was arraigned by District Judge James J. Haggerty in Kingston on three counts of reckless endangerment and one count each of illegal possession of a firearm, discharge of a firearm into an occupied residence and disorderly conduct. He was jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $75,000 bail.

Court records say Baldrica is on parole from state prison serving a sentence of up to seven years for attacking an off-duty police officer in Wilkes-Barre on March 5, 2013.