Missoula Crime Report: Assault on a Peace Officer was the Theme

The Missoula County Attorney’s Office charged 15 new criminal complaints this week. According to County Attorney Kirsten Pabst, three of those cases involved some form of violence.

“The first was an aggravated burglary, assault with a weapon, and criminal mischief,” Pabst said. “The allegation there is that a local resort employee called 911 to report that the defendant was intoxicated, broke in the door to their closed bar, and assaulted one of the employees by hitting him over the head with a chunk of wood from the door frame that the defendant broke.”

Pabst said three other cases involved an assault on a peace officer and two of those were felony offenses.

“In the first case, the allegation is that the defendant was challenging people to fight and throwing rocks at traffic driving by on Broadway,” Pabst said. “When the officer responded, the defendant got really aggressive and allegedly pushed the officers face, causing not only a melee, but injuring the officer. In the next, the allegation was that the defendant was in the detention facility and acting out in an assaulting matter. When detention officers tried to restrain him, he escalated and actively assaulted one of the officers.”

In the third case, the defendant was charged with criminal endangerment, two counts of assault on a peace officer, and resisting arrest.

“The allegation there is that two separate concerned motorists called 911 describing the defendant’s erratic behavior,” Pabst said. “They saw the defendant falling asleep at the wheel, stopping in an intersection, running a red light, weaving in and out, and crossing into the opposite lane requiring other drivers to take evasive driving maneuvers to avoid being hit. When he was approached by officers, he immediately wanted to fight and injured two of the officers.”

Pabst said her office also charged two other individuals following high-speed chases with police. In addition, there were a handful of theft and forgery cases. One case involved theft of property by embezzlement. In that case, a locally owned business reported that about 25 firearms had been stolen from the store over retailing at over $20,000.

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