Missoula Crime Report: Huge Spike in Violent Crimes This Week

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 17 new felony complaints this week, which is five less than last week and right around the weekly average. According to County Attorney Matt Jennings, there were 10 violent crimes. 

“That is the highest we have had all year,” Jennings said. “That’s about double our running average. We had five acts of family violence or strangulation. We had three non-family violence robbery cases and we had two sexual assault cases. We did have four endangerment crimes. There was a high-speed chase and some other incidences of people driving drunk with children in the car. We only had one property crime and we had two drug crimes.” 

Jennings wanted to highlight the shooting that occurred at the Sha Ron Fishing Access Site this week.  

“A lot of folks were pretty scared, however, this was a domestic incident between a brother and a sister,” Jennings said. “There was no indication that other people were at risk aside from a gun being fired nearby when other people were there, but it was within a vehicle. That person is in custody and it's still under investigation with all the facts and circumstances.” 

READ MORE: Shots Fired During Siblings’ Argument at Missoula Fishing Spot 

In addition, Jennings said there was a legitimate robbery case this week and those don’t often occur in our community. 

“Somebody went into the Hellgate Trading Post and robbed the store, taking cash, some cigarettes, beer, and some other items. He got into a physical altercation with an employee, hitting him over the head with a bottle of wine. You can go to other jurisdictions, say Baltimore or Philadelphia, and they get a lot of robberies like this. We don't get very many. When we do, we're pretty alarmed by that. That makes it scary to low-wage workers in these places. 

READ MORE: Update: Combative Missoula Robbery Suspect Caught 

Jennings said there were two significant jury trials this week as well. To find out more information about those, listen to Jennings' full report below: