Police release tape of 911 call

The female caller is heard crying on the tape.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- City police initially believed they were responding to a burglary call shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday.
It wasn't until they arrived that they found a 21-year-old woman lying in the front yard of a Wood Street home and a 43-year-old man standing nearby with a semiautomatic pistol in his hand.
On Thursday, police released a taped copy of the 911 call made by a female from 133 Wood St., who said Erica Mechling's ex-boyfriend James Fambro-Wade was in the house and had a gun. The call was made at 8:55 a.m.
Though the caller's voice is garbled in some portions of the tape and she is often heard crying, at one point the dispatcher can be heard asking, "He killed her?" and the caller answering, "Yes."
Scanner traffic in the background also is audible on some portions of the tape, and a Niles police officer is heard saying a man with a gun is standing outside the home. Shortly after that, the officer tells dispatch the man is running toward Chief Bruce Simeone.
"We have shots fired," the officer says
Call made by victim
The tape also included a call made by Mechling less than an hour earlier, stating Fambro-Wade had just called and threatened to kill her.
"He will not give up," Mechling is heard telling the dispatcher. "Nobody will do [expletive]."
In the initial call, Mechling told the dispatcher she had called police several times about Fambro-Wade harassing and threatening her.
"He is either watching the house, or he has someone watching the house, because in the middle of the night he caught my [expletive] car on fire," Mechling also says.
While police records show Mechling filed reports only twice -- once Monday evening and a second Wednesday morning -- a check of area courts shows domestic-violence reports between the two in Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties.
Felony conviction
Fambro-Wade also had a felony rape conviction and was listed with the Ohio Attorney General's Office as a sexually oriented offender. He was registered in Trumbull County.
The couple had lived together in Warren until recently, when Mechling moved into the Wood Street home with her parents, siblings and 23-month-old daughter.
"She moved in with her parents a month ago," Capt. Charles Wilson said.
Wilson had few additional details about the case, since most of the investigation has been turned over to the county prosecutor's office and the Ohio Bureau of Identification and Investigation.
The county coroner's office ruled today that Mechling's death was a homicide and that she died of multiple gunshot wound. An autopsy was performed Thursday .Autopsy results on Fambro-Wade won't be released until at least Monday, a spokesman said.
slshaulis@vindy.com