BOARDMAN — It remains to be seen whether criminal charges will be filed in a March 7 fatal shooting.

The Boardman police report, made public Tuesday, seems to indicate that the death of Montrell Gilbert, 45, of Hillman Way in Boardman, may have been a case of self-defense.

The report states that a woman was found at the scene seconds after the shooting, and admitted to police that she shot Gilbert at least three times, but the document does not state that she was arrested or charged for the incident.

Boardman police Chief Todd Werth said the case will be referred to the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office for a decision on any potential charges.

The report states that police responded about 3:15 a.m. March 7 to the apartment building at 269 Mill Creek Drive, at the corner of Glenwood Avenue and Mill Creek. Across multiple calls to the Mahoning County 911 Center, police could hear people threatening to kill each other.

Shortly after police arrived, they heard multiple gunshots from the south side of the building. When they got to the rear of the building, they found Gilbert lying in a large pool of blood.

The report states that when asked who shot him, a woman in the crowd around Gilbert said she did and told police she lived at the apartment. Police took her aside, and she explained that Gilbert was her boyfriend.

She said her Wyze camera notified her that someone was at her residence, and while she was on the phone with Gilbert, she could see him trying to kick in the door to her bedroom. She said her three children were in the house — one of them 18 — while she was at a house in Youngstown. She said that during the phone call, Gilbert threatened to burn down the building.

The report states the woman told police that her sister’s boyfriend arrived at the apartment before the rest of them did, knowing Gilbert’s problematic history.

She said that when she arrived, she circled the block at least twice, concerned about an altercation between Gilbert and her sister’s boyfriend. Police later received video from a nearby property owner that appears to show a vehicle in the driveway, with one man standing outside the SUV and pointing a gun at the driver’s head.

The report states that the woman said when she decided to stop circling and try to enter her apartment, Gilbert jumped out at her from the bushes. She said another man jumped in front of Gilbert, and Gilbert grabbed him and threw him down, then pointed a gun at him.

At that point, the woman told police, she pulled her own handgun from her purse and fired what she believed to be three shots at Gilbert, hitting him. Police later found four corresponding shell casings from her Springfield Armory Hellcat handgun.

The woman dropped the gun as she heard police coming around the side of the house issuing orders to drop it. She did not flee from the police.

Gilbert was declared dead at the scene.

According to Mahoning County online court records, Gilbert was facing charges before Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony D’Apolito from a 2019 case in which he was indicted for having weapons under disability, a third-degree felony; possession of a fentanyl-related compound, a fourth-degree felony; possession of cocaine and possession of heroin, both third-degree felonies; and improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle, a fourth-degree felony.

In 2014, charges of improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle and having weapons under disability were dismissed by the late Judge James Evans.

In 2009, he was found guilty of possession of dangerous drugs in one case, and in another that same year, convicted on two counts of possession of drugs and one count of possession of cocaine, while charges of having weapons under disability and a lower-tier felony drug count were dismissed, court records show.