Police arrest Latrobe man for assault, threatening woman with box cutter

A Latrobe man was arrested early Wednesday by city police on charges of assaulting and choking his girlfriend and then threatening her with a box-cutter knife as she ran from his home, according to court papers.

Brian A. Ray, 34, was arraigned on charges of harassment, false imprisonment, terroristic threats, simple assault and strangulation filed by police after the 4:39 a.m. incident on the 400 block of Walnut Street. He was ordered held in the county jail on $5,000 bond.

Sgt. Ronald Keslar reported that he was dispatched to Walnut Street to investigate a report of an assault and was met by a woman who was standing on the sidewalk. She told police that she and Ray got into an argument about 2:30 a.m. when Ray physically assaulted her, began choking her and refused to let her leave.

Keslar said in court documents that the woman was able to run from the residence later in the morning when Ray went to use the bathroom.

“The victim stated when she went outside, Ray followed her with a box cutter. … Ray told her he was going to kill her by cutting her throat,” Keslar reported.

She said he also threatened to harm her family.

However, instead of attacking her, the woman reported that Ray cut himself with the box cutter as she fled to a neighbor’s home, where she called police. She told Keslar that Ray then threw the box cutter into the yard and fled.

Police located Ray a few blocks away at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Fairmont Street, where he was taken into custody. Keslar described the wounds to Ray’s chest as “superficial.”

Keslar said that he noticed the woman had “redness about her chest and neck area” as a result of the assault.

Keslar said Ray admitted pushing the victim during the altercation but denied threatening her with a box cutter. He also told police that the cuts on his chest were caused by the woman, who he said cut him using the box cutter.

Keslar said police retrieved the knife laying from yard and kept it as evidence.

In 2016, Ray pleaded guilty to multiple criminal counts of burglary, receiving stolen property and illegal possession of several firearms that were reported stolen from a home in Derry Township in 2015. He was sentenced to serve 3 to 8 years in prison plus five years on probation.