Police: Raid, photos from rap video leads to multiple felony gun charge against Arnold man

Arnold police accused a convicted felon who is not permitted to possess a firearm of posing with multiple guns while recording a rap video and having two loaded pistols in his home.

John’Tai Lamar Lee Cannon, 21, of the 300 block of 17th Street in Arnold was charged with five felony counts of illegal possession of a firearm, according to court records.

He was being detained in the Westmoreland County jail in lieu of a $25,000 cash bond and faces a preliminary hearing Jan. 12 before District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr.

Cannon was arrested Oct. 27 after agents from the state Attorney General’s Office, the Westmoreland County Drug Task Force and Arnold police executed a search warrant at Cannon’s home, according to a criminal complaint.

Officers confiscated two handguns, a .40-caliber Glock and a 9 mm Polymer 80 with an extended magazine and an obliterated serial number, the complaint said.

Police said they also found two digital scales in the kitchen and two scales with cocaine residue in the living room.

Cannon was not at the house when police entered, but a woman who lived there called him by telephone after officers found two loaded pistols in a basement stairway, the complaint said.

She and another man who was in the house told police that they did not know there were guns in the home, police said.

While on the telephone with the woman, police said, they overheard Cannon say the guns belonged to someone else.

The woman told police the person who Cannon said owned the guns does not live in the home, according to the complaint.

Cannon pleaded guilty in February 2020 to aggravated assault and is not permitted to possess a gun, the complaint said.

During the investigation, police said they found photos of Cannon on social media in which he posed with two semiautomatic pistols and an AR-15-style rifle, the complaint said.

One of the photos shows Cannon sitting in his living room holding the AR-15 along with six semiautomatic pistols at his feet, the complaint said.

Police said they questioned the woman who took the photos during a party at Cannon’s home. She said she was invited to photograph a rap video and was asked to bring her guns along.

She turned over two Smith & Wesson pistols and a .22-caliber AR-style rifle after officers showed her photographs of Cannon holding the firearms, which she said belonged to her, the complaint said.