Two die in holiday shooting

The Christmas Day shooting deaths of two people are under investigation by the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office.

The shootings occurred at a home west of Kalispell Saturday afternoon.

Flathead County Sheriff Mike Meehan said the sole suspect, identified Saturday only as an adult male, was arrested at about 4:30 p.m. at a vacant trailer on Ashley Hills Road off of U.S. 2.

Meehan said he would limit the release of details of the apparent double homicide until the initial investigation was completed.

He declined to release the names, ages or genders of the victims or the suspect Saturday evening. At that time, he said the families of the deceased were still being notified.

Meehan said the victims were known to the suspect, but he wouldn’t say whether they were related.

According to Meehan, deputies responded to a disturbance report involving a weapon at a home west of Kalispell near U.S. 2 around 3 p.m. One person was pronounced dead at the scene and another died after being taken by ambulance to the Kalispell Regional Medical Center, Meehan said.

Law enforcement dispatchers initially broadcast an attempt to locate notice for a Ford Explorer seen leaving the shooting scene. That auto was later found abandoned. Meehan said the suspect, after ditching the Explorer, stole a pickup that was later found unoccupied at a gravel pit near Ashley Hills Road.

Deputies tracked the man by following footprints in the snow from the vehicle to a nearby vacant trailer, Meehan said.

The man was arrested inside the trailer on suspicion of two counts of deliberate homicide.

“Right now we’ve got several scenes to process,” Meehan said.

Kalispell Police Department officers and Montana Highway Patrol troopers assisted in the Saturday search.