Warren woman’s swatting case heads to grand jury
WARREN — A Warren woman accused of making a false 911 call claiming shots were fired at a city residence will have her case considered by a Trumbull County grand jury.
Tiffany Fellows, 39, waived her right to a preliminary hearing on her charge of fourth-degree felony swatting Tuesday before Warren Municipal Court Judge Natasha Natale.
According to a Dec. 17 police report, officers were dispatched to an East Avenue residence in reference to shots being fired.
The report states that Fellows, who identified herself with a different last name, told the dispatcher that a man and her boyfriend were inside the house, and she ran outside, hearing gunshots afterward.
Many officers responded to the call, surrounding the house, and an officer kicked its front door multiple times to get inside and check for potential victims — severely damaging the door and its frame in the process, according to the report.
Officers searched the residence and found two guns in plain view, a handgun and shotgun, but noted there was no scent of gunpowder in the house.
The report states that the dispatcher called Fellows back and told her to return to the scene, but she hung up after telling them she was at her aunt’s house. Fellows did not answer an additional call from the dispatcher, who later told officers that she had an active bench warrant out of Newton Falls Municipal Court.
The report states that the building’s owner arrived home in the meantime, and officers explained why they had to kick in the door and enter his house.
The owner told officers that he had blocked Fellows on all social media and his cellphone, noting that he had just seen her on the city’s west side and she made the call on purpose to get him in trouble, the report states.
An officer contacted the 911 center and asked to ping the original 911 call from Fellows to find her location at the time of the call. The rapid SOS system dispatchers used showed Fellows in the area of Dickey Avenue and Ward Street, which the building’s owner confirmed to be where her family lived.
The firearms, which the building’s owner said were not his, were taken for safekeeping.
Officers went to the area to arrest Fellows, and an officer found her at the intersection of Dickey and West Market Street as a vehicle’s passenger. She was taken into custody on her swatting charge and her warrant through Newton Falls Municipal Court.
The report states the vehicle’s driver told officers he had just met Fellows through a dating app the previous Saturday, noting that she didn’t say anything about what had happened on East Avenue when he picked her up.
Fellows pleaded not guilty at her initial appearance in Warren Municipal Court on Dec. 19.
She’s still being held at the Trumbull County jail on bond, court records show.
