Missoula Crime Report: Family Disputes and Gun Violence

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 14 new felony complaints this week, which is one more than last week and right around the weekly average. County Attorney Matt Jennings said seven of those were violent crimes. 

“A couple of those involved gun violence, and one involved a knife,” Jennings said. “That number of seven is a little bit higher than we like to see it. We had one endangerment crime, two property crimes, and four drug crimes. We also try to break down our violent categories to make sure that we're tracking any trends and seeing what's going on in their community. Three of these were related to family violence and four were related to non-family violence.” 

When it comes to violent crimes, Jennings said they are almost always related to drugs or alcohol. 

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“From the outside, we start seeing an escalation of behavior leading to these events,” Jennings said. “We hope that folks are taking steps in their own lives and the lives of their friends and their family members, and they intervene before things do get out of hand. Luckily, in some of the violent crimes this week, there weren't a lot of serious injuries, and that's good, but there were a lot of threats.” 

During COVID-19, Jennings said they saw an alarming trend of people threatening others with firearms. 

“It just feels like we have seen a little bit more of that in the last few weeks, and that was the case this week,” Jennings said. Of course, Montana is a proud gun-owning state, and folks are entitled to carry firearms for their own protection, but they certainly aren't allowed to just threaten to shoot somebody or wave it in their face if they're annoyed. That often ends up getting criminal charges against the person who introduced a firearm into that situation.” 

Jennings also mentioned that he has been preparing for the Miles Miller trial that begins on September 9. 

READ MORE: 21-Year-Old Missoula Man Charged With Killing His Mother

The Missoula County Attorney’s Office provides a weekly crime report every Friday morning at 9:00 on Talk Back.