Missoula Crime Report: Man Fired a Round at Three Children

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office charged 21 new criminal complaints this week, which is two more than last week and right around the new weekly average. According to County Attorney Kirsten Pabst, eight of those were out-of-custody cases. 

“When law enforcement arrests someone on probable cause and they are booked into the detention facility, then it triggers a statutory deadline,” Pabst said. “We have 48 hours to file formal charges. So about 75% of the cases that we charge on average are in custody cases, but we have this other 25% of cases that we get from law enforcement of completed investigations where they're requesting that we file charges.” 

Some of those cases are not urgent and, in some cases, they don’t know where the defendant is and are asking for a warrant. 

“Of the 21, five fall into the violent crimes or crimes against persons category,” Pabst said. “In one, there was a domestic that involved a firearm. In another, there was an indecent exposure and assault. The allegation is the defendant attacked a woman with a knife. In another, we charged assault on a peace officer. In that case, the defendant was allegedly vaping at the Griz game and didn't like it when he was told that he couldn't do that. He went on the fight, hitting one officer and kicking another.” 

The last one in that category was an assault with a weapon. 

“In that case, the defendant allegedly rammed a camper with a truck, fired a round in there, and discovered, unbeknownst to him, that there were three children inside,” Pabst said. “In the property crimes, we charged seven. There were two thefts, three burglaries, and one criminal mischief. In the drug category, there were six new felony cases, two meth, three fentanyl, and one involving both meth and fentanyl.” 

Pabst said her office also charged a fugitive from justice from Idaho who allegedly had violated his parole there. There was also a disorderly conduct case in which a woman was harassing people at the Bonner Town Pump. 

The Missoula County Attorney’s Office provides a weekly crime report every Friday morning at 9:00 on Talk Back. You can listen to Pabst's full report below: