Man with machete arrested in Col. Falls

A 51-year-old man was arrested by Columbia Falls Police officers after allegedly threatening a waitress with a machete at the Nite Owl restaurant Saturday afternoon.

Carlos Seeley of Columbia Falls was arrested on charges of felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor resisting arrest.

Report of the threat was called in to dispatch at 4:33 p.m. According to the report, Seeley, who was wielding both a machete and a buck knife, said he was “taking over the place.”

When an officer arrived on the scene, Seeley refused to drop the weapons, according to Columbia Falls Police Chief David Perry. The officer deployed a Taser, which had no effect, so he grabbed the hand in which Seeley was holding the knife.

Perry said Seeley then swung the machete toward the officer, who struck him in the head with his pistol. The impact caused the gun to discharge into the wall, striking no one. Seeley was then arrested and transported to Pathways Treatment Center.

“Because there was a weapon involved, we had the sheriff’s department come in and investigate the shooting itself,” Perry said.

He said that the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office investigation has closed and the results were turned over to the Flathead County Attorney’s Office.