Man Accused Of Bagging Buck From Walmart Parking Lot Near Indiana, PA

by SAM KUSIC, Indiana Gazette

At the Resort Plaza Walmart, people can save a dollar. And, apparently, waste a buck as well.

By shooting it with a handgun, that is.

Which is why Arcangelo Bianco Jr., 40, finds himself in trouble with the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

According to the commission, Bianco fired several rounds at a hapless white-tailed deer from within the Burrell Township store’s parking lot and bagged the animal on the other side of Old William Penn Highway (Old Route 22) one afternoon last November.

The most serious of the charges he faces is a misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment. He also was slapped with five summary offenses, all hunting law violations, including hunting without a license, shooting on or across highways and unlawful killing or taking of big game.

“Obviously, we can’t have someone running through a Walmart parking lot shooting at a deer,” said Jack Lucas, the wildlife conservation officer who investigated the incident.

But the one thing Bianco does not stand accused of is hunting out of season — the incident reportedly took place on Nov. 26, the first day of antlered deer season with regular firearms.

On that day, Bianco had driven to the Burrell Township shopping plaza to do some banking, Lucas said.

It was around 2:10 p.m. that Bianco spotted the buck running through the parking lot from the cab of his pickup truck, Lucas said.

And it apparently was some buck. Ten points, if memory serves, Lucas said.

The deer ran around a corner of the store, and Bianco hopped out of the truck, gun in hand, and “began firing multiple rounds at the deer,” Lucas wrote in charging documents.

“The defendant pursued the deer through the parking lot and across Old William Penn Highway, where he killed the deer. The defendant then loaded the deer into his vehicle and took it to a meat processor for butchering,” he said.

Citing the active court case, Lucas declined to give details beyond those provided in the criminal complaint, including the number of rounds Bianco is accused of squeezing off.

But he said evidence includes surveillance footage and a deer he seized from the processor.

“It was the nicest buck I’ve seen taken in Indiana County in a couple of years,” Lucas said.

Bianco is being represented by Jason N. Huska, of Latrobe. Huska declined comment this morning.

A preliminary hearing before District Judge Jennifer Rega has been scheduled for May 1