Ferndale shooting

Murder angle probed

The Daily Inter Lake

Officials are considering a shooting in Ferndale "an attempted deliberate homicide until we know otherwise."

That's not unusual, said Flathead County Sheriff's Office detective Jeanne Landis.

She is investigating the shooting, reported at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday at 1385 Montana 209.

A 23-year-old woman was critically hurt by a gunshot to the head. It was reported as a self-inflicted shooting by one of two men living in the house. One is the woman's boyfriend and the other is a relative of his, Landis said.

Landis said the woman's injuries are so severe that she wasn't expected to survive Wednesday. But on Thursday, the woman started responding. She remains in the Intensive Care Unit at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

Landis said it is standard procedure to investigate suicide and attempted-suicide cases as possible homicides until that can be ruled out.

"I'm hoping to get some answers from the crime lab," she said Thursday.