Springdale Man, 33, Accused of Threatening to Shoot Cops in Daily 911 Calls

A 33-year-old man is facing a felony charge after investigators say he called 911 on back-to-back days and threatened to shoot Springdale police officers. Jerell Talbert was taken into custody by Springdale police and appeared in court on Wednesday, where he denied the allegations against him.

According to WLWT, investigators say Talbert threatened to shoot police on Monday and Tuesday, telling dispatchers he would call every day until something was done, per prosecutors. Prosecutors also say Talbert told dispatchers he would shoot the cops who were protecting the terrorists, though the exact meaning behind that statement was not detailed. Police located Talbert on State Route 4 near Glendale Milford Road, a stretch known locally as Springfield Pike that sits near a dense commercial corridor bordering I-75 and I-275, according to the City of Springdale.

Talbert was booked into Hamilton County's system on Tuesday on a charge of making terroristic threats, according to Hamilton County arrest records. A judge set his bond at $50,000, and he was transferred to the Hamilton County Justice Center in downtown Cincinnati, a facility with a maximum capacity of 1,240 inmates operated by the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, per the Jail Exchange. He is due back in court on September 4.

What Ohio Law Says About Threatening Police

Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2909.23, making a terroristic threat is a third-degree felony, defined as threatening to commit an offense with the purpose of intimidating a civilian population or coercing government action, and creating a reasonable fear of imminent harm, according to the Ohio General Assembly's statute updated under Senate Bill 184. The law was last revised in 2002. A related provision, ORC 2909.25, allows courts to order anyone convicted under the statute to pay full restitution for the emergency response, investigation, and prosecution costs incurred by law enforcement — meaning a conviction could leave Talbert on the hook for the taxpayer-funded resources spent responding to the alleged threats.

The case is being handled by the Springdale Police Department, led by Chief Thomas E. Butler and headquartered at 12105 Lawnview Avenue, which runs patrol, investigative, and support divisions covering the city around the clock, per the Ohio Attorney General's law enforcement directory.

A Small City With an Outsized Daytime Crowd

Springdale is home to roughly 11,000 residents, but its daytime population swells past 52,000 thanks to a dense cluster of commercial and industrial development, according to the City of Springdale. The suburb sits about 15 miles north of downtown Cincinnati, and that daytime surge is part of why a swift police response to any threat against officers carries added weight for local officials.

Springdale's department has also had its own brush with tragedy in the line of duty. In March 2020, Officer Kaia LaFay Grant was killed in a vehicular assault while responding to an emergency call, the first officer killed in the line of duty in the department's history, according to the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police.

Part of a Broader Pattern Across Ohio

Talbert's arrest echoes a case Hoodline covered in Elyria this July, where a 28-year-old man was arrested on the same third-degree felony charge after allegedly posting explicit online threats against local police officers. Together the cases point to Ohio prosecutors' continued willingness to pursue felony charges against people who threaten law enforcement, whether the threats come through a dispatcher's phone line or a social media post.

Springdale police have also handled other high-profile cases in recent months. Just last week, Hoodline reported that a man was sentenced to 18 years to life in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court following a 2024 fatal shooting at a La Quinta Inn in Springdale, a case investigated by Springdale detectives. Talbert's case, by contrast, remains in its early stages, with the factual dispute over the alleged threats still unresolved ahead of his September 4 court date.