CRANBERRY TWP — At just 19 years old, Lagene Lawson had already accumulated a troubled past by the time he ended his life in a shopping center early Saturday morning.

His first brush with the law came when he was 10. He vandalized a New Castle church.

But that was just the start.

“We had him for 25 incidents as a juvenile,” said New Castle police Detective Sgt. Kevin Seelbaugh.

His crimes ranged from the petty — criminal mischief and trespass — to the serious — assault with guns and knives, auto theft, burglary and attempted homicide.

“He was a bad kid,” Seelbaugh said.

Lawson, who grew up in a New Castle housing project, was arrested last year for his role in a 2010 shooting in his hometown.

He and three accomplices fired gunshots at a van driving through the city's West Side, police said.

He was placed in the Lawrence County Jail on April 19, 2011. He eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in the shooting, and was sentenced to time served.

He was released May 3 of this year, and placed on probation stemming from a felony drug trafficking arrest in 2011.

But it didn't take him long to revert to his criminal ways, Seelbaugh said.

Lawson is suspected of shooting at a passing car. New Castle police looked for but couldn't find him.

Instead, they settled on an arrest warrant for attempted homicide — again.

More recently, he had been seeing a girl who lives in Butler. He was in the city last week for several days, police said.

Early Saturday morning, he assaulted his girlfriend, said Butler police Lt. Michael Dalcamo, who would only identify her as “a juvenile.” Lawson attacked the girl at her friend's home in the 100 block of Elm Street.

He also attacked the friend, a 19-year-old woman, leaving her face bloodied and in need of stitches, Dalcamo said.

Lawson, police said, stole the woman's car but not before firing a gunshot into the ceiling of her house. He sped away south.

About 3:15 a.m. Saturday, he blew into Adams Township by way of Route 228. Township patrol officers spotted him and tried to stop him near Mars High School.

But there was no stopping him, police said.

He made it into Cranberry Township, with police from two departments now in hot pursuit.

Lawson turned the stolen car into the Cranberry Commons shopping plaza.

What happened next, no one could have guessed.

Cranberry Township police said Lawson pointed the semi-automatic pistol at his head in the still moving car and fired one shot.

The runaway car eventually stopped but not before knocking down a sign in the parking lot and crashing into a closed Lane Bryant store.

The vehicle went through the glass storefront and traveled about three-quarters of the way into the store, which did not open Saturday.

Broken glass and fluid from the car could be seen on the sidewalk in front of the store and on the store's floor.

The impact sparked a small fire underneath the car that officers quickly snuffed out.

Police said they found Lawson behind the wheel — dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

An autopsy later that day confirmed Lawson fatally shot himself with a .45-caliber pistol, said Butler County Deputy Coroner Larry Barr.

Investigators said Cranberry police recovered the slug outside the mall.

Cranberry Township police Sgt. Chuck Mascellino said the investigation continues; however, he said all the evidence points to a suicide and that no gunfire was exchanged between Lawson and police.

But Lawson's family reportedly has doubts about the police account.

Authorities said when family members appeared Saturday at the morgue at the Young Funeral Home in Butler to identify the body, they said they wanted a second, independent autopsy.

A message left with Lawson's family was not immediately returned this morning.

Butler police, meanwhile, did not learn about Lawson's alleged assault, shooting and vehicle theft in the city until the suspect's death.

For an unknown reason, his alleged victims did not report what happened on Elm Street until 3:43 a.m., Dalcamo said.

By then, city officers had already heard the radio transmissions about the police chase in Adams and Cranberry townships, the shooting and the crash.

Dalcamo said he subsequently learned from police in New Castle that Lawson there was wanted on a warrant.

That warrant was issued in connection with a July 12 shooting in New Castle that injured an elderly bystander who happened to be going into a church.

New Castle police said Lawson and a 16-year-old were at a playground in the city's West Side shortly before 6 p.m. when they opened fire at a passing car.

At least two bullets hit the car. No one in the vehicle was injured.

A 76-year-old man, however, at the wrong place at the wrong time, was grazed in the head by a bullet or flying debris.

The man told police he was walking into St. Paul Baptist Church when the shooting started. He suffered a minor wound behind the left ear.

Officers arrested the 16-year-old that night; however, Lawson remained at large.

Police charged both teenagers with attempted homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment.

Seelbaugh was not surprised when he heard about Lawson's fate.

“That's all he knew who to be — a criminal,” Seelbaugh said. “He was trouble, to everybody.”