Man charged in shooting of New Castle woman

The woman was shot during a game of Russian roulette, police said.

STAFF REPORT

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — A man was in the Lawrence County jail Thursday on $250,000 bond in the shooting of a city woman.

New Castle police arrested Tyler Lloyd Culver-McMillan, 21, who has no permanent address, after the shooting around 6:10 p.m. Wednesday at the Crestview Gardens apartments on Parkwood Court, according to documents on file at District Magistrate Melissa Amodie’s office.

McMillan is charged with aggravated assault, possessing a firearm while prohibited from doing so, having an unlicensed firearm, reckless endangerment and simple assault in the shooting of an 18-year-old woman who lives at the apartment where the shooting took place.

Police found the woman sitting on her couch bleeding from a wound to her buttocks.

She complained of abdominal pain and was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center.

Police reported her condition as critical but stable. The hospital had no update available Thursday.

The woman initially told police a strange man entered her apartment and shot her, but she later admitted she knew who the shooter was.

She said that she was sitting with McMillan on her couch and he was playing with a silver revolver.

She asked him to put the gun away, she told police, and he took all but one bullet out of the gun, put it against her buttocks and shot her in a game of Russian roulette. Then, she said, he handed her the phone and told her to call 911.

The woman’s young son was in another room at the apartment at the time of the shooting, the affidavit said. The child’s age was not available on the affidavit or on a police report.

McMillan fled the apartment and was caught by police and a police dog near Whippo Street, when he gave them a false name, the affidavit said.

He later revealed his real name, denying at first that he knew the woman. He later admitted he “knew of her,” that she was the mother of his brother’s baby. He denied being anywhere near Crestview Gardens on Wednesday.

McMillan’s preliminary hearing is set for Thursday at Lawrence County Central District Court.