Tarentum police responding to domestic incident charge woman with marijuana-growing operation

A Tarentum woman was accused of running a marijuana-growing operation out of her apartment after her boyfriend called police to report that she pointed a loaded pistol at him during an argument.

Shaunnon Barnes, 39, of the 500 block of East Eighth Avenue, was charged with a felony count of possession with intent to deliver drugs along with making terroristic threats, simple assault, reckless endangerment, drug possession and harassment.

She was released on a nonmonetary bond and faces a preliminary hearing on the charges before District Judge Carolyn Bengel on April 27, according to court records.

According to the criminal complaint charging Barnes, police were dispatched to her home April 17 after her boyfriend reported the gun incident.

He told officers that, while arguing with Barnes, she retrieved a pistol from her bedroom and pointed it at him with her finger on the trigger and said, “I want you gone from this Earth,” the complaint said.

The man said Barnes returned the gun to her bedroom before threatening to beat him with a liquor bottle she held inches from his face, according to police.

Police said they spoke to the man outside the house, and he told them Barnes had a marijuana growing operation in the apartment that looked “professional.”

Investigators said windows in the apartment were covered with black plastic, and they could smell marijuana from outside.

Barnes met police at the rear door of the apartment when they called her by telephone and asked her to come outside, but she closed and locked it, the complaint said.

She was detained by an officer when she tried to leave through the front door, police said.

Investigators searched the apartment after getting a warrant and found a loaded .22-caliber Jennings pistol under a mattress for which there was no record of sale, according to the complaint. Ammunition for the gun was found in a dresser.

Police said they found 11 marijuana plants in a tent with lights in Barnes’ bedroom along with a system of ventilation fans and timers.

A second grow tent in the room was used to store soil, fertilizer, pH test strips and other items used to grow marijuana, police said.

Officers confiscated a scale, packaging material and drug paraphernalia, they said, and found marijuana seeds scattered throughout the bedroom.