Warren man charged with felonious assault for shooting out woman’s tire

Staff report

WARREN

Stephen A. Simpson, 40, must forfeit his concealed-carry permit, have no weapons and have no contact with a woman whose car tire he admitted shooting out Thursday while trying to arrest her.

A police report described him as a bail bondsman for Around the Clock Bail Bonds on East Market Street, but the company’s owner, Kathy Sankey, said by phone Friday she fired Simpson “months ago” and does not know why Simpson was trying to apprehend someone.

Judge Thomas Gysegem of Warren Municipal Court entered a not-guilty plea for Simpson on Friday to felonious assault. Simpson pleaded not guilty to discharging firearms in city limits. Bond was set at $10,000.

Police were called to the Trumbull Plaza at 2505 Parkman Road NW at 4:11 p.m. Thursday for shots fired, then got a call from Simpson, who said he had shot out the tire on a car of a woman he was trying to arrest. Simpson drove to the police station.

Police said Simpson told them he warned the woman not to leave or he would shoot out her tire. She refused to exit the vehicle, he said, so he fired. Simpson was with Donald Allgood, who Sankey says she hired to work as a bail bondsman two days ago.

A witness said the woman’s car was parked near the Dollar Tree store entrance doors. Two men tried to arrest her, but she drove off, and one of the men shot out the front driver’s tire as she drove away, flattening it.

A store clerk told police the man fired while there were kids on bicycles “in the immediate area.” After interviewing Simpson at the police station, officers took him to jail.

Police learned that a green Ford Escape with a flattened front driver’s tire was found abandoned in a driveway on Solar Lane Northwest near the back of the plaza. A 911 caller said a woman fled from the car on foot. Police identified her as Melanie Walker, 30, of Warren. A county judge issued a warrant for her arrest earlier this month for not showing up for drug court. Allgood told police he did not see what happened very well.

Simpson also has a pending assault case in Warren Municipal Court related to a confrontation with his neighbor last May when he lived on Hazelwood Avenue Southeast, according to court records and a police report.