Missoula Crime Report: Bear Spray Attack and Vicious Dogs

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 18 new felony complaints this week, which is the same as last week and higher than the weekly average. According to County Attorney Matt Jennings, four of those were violent crimes. 

“We had five endangerment crimes which are almost always driving related with alcohol or drugs,” Jennings said. “We had three property crimes and we had six drug crimes. In our violent crime category, we only had two domestic violence incidents this week and we had two crimes of non-family violence.” 

Jennings said there has been a small uptick in the use of bear spray as a weapon.

“Bear spray is for bears and not for humans,” Jennings said. “It can actually be really devastating if someone gets sprayed in the face. Not only is the pepper spray excruciatingly painful, but the pressure coming out of those cans can actually cause some damage to eyes and other bodily organs. So we are taking that stuff really seriously. It's a no no for criminals to attack anybody with anything. If they use bear spray and cause such pain to folks like that, we are taking it really seriously.” 

In addition, Jennings wanted to highlight a case involving a vicious dog.  

“We had a case where a man got bit somewhere where no man wants to get bit,” Jennings said. “We've had some other issues with that dog. We're always trying to work with owners on making sure that they're keeping their animals safe and away from other people but sometimes we got to involve animal control and the court system to make sure that kids, neighbors, and other folks are safe.” 

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