The father of a man on death row for killing a New Kensington police officer was arrested Sunday after, police said, the 52-year-old made sexual advances toward two 16-year-old girls in Latrobe.
Gregory Baucum Jr. was charged with two counts each of unlawful contact with a minor, interference with custody of children, open lewdness and harassment and one count of supplying liquor to a minor.
Latrobe City Police met shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday with a woman who said her daughter and friend were approached by a man they’d seen getting out of a Pennsylvania State Police cruiser near the McDonald’s on Lincoln Avenue.
The girls said the man — later identified as Baucum — was wearing a red T-shirt and a Disney hat with Mickey Mouse ears. One of the girls took a cellphone photo of the man, who walked into the restaurant and began talking to them, police said.
According to court documents, the girls told police Baucum began asking them sexually explicit questions, and followed them outside and continued to talk to them while fondling himself through his pants. He said his sister was coming to pick him up and asked if the girls wanted to go with him to New Jersey, authorities said. He then left and returned with a 24-ounce can of alcoholic iced tea and handed it to one of the girls, according to a criminal complaint.
After speaking with the girls, city police located Baucum at a nearby Dollar General, wearing the same shirt and hat as in the cellphone photo, police said. He led police to his belongings, which included a can of alcoholic iced tea, and he was arrested and taken into custody, according to authorities.
While Baucum was in custody, a woman claiming to be his sister contacted police, saying she was from New Jersey and was planning to come and get him.
“This corroborated the juvenile females’ statements and that (Baucum) had means to take the victims to another state,” police wrote in a criminal complaint.
A June 12 preliminary hearing is scheduled in Judge Tamara Mahady’s Unity court. Baucum, who has no fixed address, according to police, was unable to post bail and taken to Westmoreland County Prison.
Baucum is the father of Rahmael Holt, who was sentenced to death in 2019 after being convicted of fatally shooting New Kensington police Officer Brian Shaw following an attempted traffic stop two years earlier.
Baucum was sentenced to time served in 2020 after being accused of intimidating a witness in Holt’s trial. An attorney for Baucum in this most recent case was not listed in court records.