Felon is charged in drug probe
Man already faced firearm count in death of 3-year-old
A Mount Washington man already charged with a firearm offense for allegedly having a gun in his home that a 3-yearold girl used to fatally shoot herself was arrested Friday on drug charges following a monthlong narcotics investigation.
Paul Parrish, 40, was charged Friday with eight offenses in connection with the drug probe. Also arrested was Daniel Lee Woods, 33, of Compton, Calif.
Detectives executing a search warrant Friday at Parrish’s home in the 700 block of Southern Avenue found $30,000 worth of crack cocaine, heroin, marijuana, a handgun, a ballistic vest, drug packaging material and more than $22,000 in cash, Pittsburgh police announced Monday.
Authorities said Parrish was in possession of a gun found in the home March 12 by 3-yearold Yasha Ross of Coraopolis. Yasha fatally shot herself in the upper chest.
Parrish, Delquay James and Michelle Gandy — Yasha’s mother — were smoking marijuana in the basement of the home around 1 p.m. that day when “they heard a loud bang coming from the upper part of the house,” a Pittsburgh police detective wrote in an affidavit. “They ran up the steps, and Michelle found her daughter bleeding from the chest and crying out for her.”
Parrish was not allowed to have a gun because of a previous felony conviction.
Parrish turned himself in to authorities March 17 after being charged by Pittsburgh police with prohibited possession of a firearm. He had been wanted on a warrant. Bail was set at $20,000, and court records show he left jail March 18.
Parrish had previously pleaded guilty to a felony evading charge in 2014 and has also been convicted of several other felonies since 1996, according to court records. In 2007, Parrish pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and was sentenced to between three and six years in prison, court records show.
A preliminary hearing on the gun charge is scheduled for Friday. A hearing on the new charges is scheduled for June 6.