2 die in weekend standoff

The Daily Inter Lake

The Kalispell Police Department's armored vehicle was dispatched to a weekend standoff in Arlee that ended with the discovery of a dead man and a dead woman.

The Ballistic Engineered Armored Response vehicle, or BEAR, was sent to recover an officer with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal police who was shot in his chest-covering protective vest, according to the Kalispell police log.

The officer was in a ditch. His name was not released Sunday.

The officer was treated at the scene, sent to an unnamed area hospital and later released, according to a Lake County Sheriff's Office press release. The nearest hospitals are in Missoula and Ronan.

Bullets broke some glass that struck a civilian, who also was treated and released at a hospital.

The Lake County Sheriff's Office plans to release the victims' names later this week.

The Kalispell police dispatch log said the man shot himself.

No information was available Sunday on how the woman died.

The standoff began shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday when the Sheriff's Office received several calls about a man intending to kill himself on Dumontier Road, north of Arlee.

While law-enforcement officers were talking to a witness on Dumontier Road, shots were fired at them from a camper trailer about 200 yards away, which is when the tribal officer was hit, according to a news release from the Sheriff's Office.

Tactical teams arrived from the Sheriff's Office, the Missoula County Sheriff's Office, the Missoula police, the tribal police and Kalispell police. The Missoula sheriff's office also sent a robot to enter the scene.

Other officers arrived from the St. Ignatius police, the Northwest Drug Task Force, and the tribal fish and game department. Arlee firefighters and ambulance workers were there, as were workers with the Montana Office of Emergency Services.

Law officers entered the trailer at 2:40 a.m. Sunday to find the two dead people.

The Montana Division of Criminal Investigation is conducting the investigation.

The bodies were taken to the state pathologist's office in Missoula for autopsies.