Missoula officers involved in two shootings

MISSOULA — A deputy shot and wounded a 42-year-old man late New Year’s Eve, making it the second police shooting that day in Missoula County, authorities said.

A Missoula County sheriff’s deputy fired his handgun and hit the man twice after he drove his vehicle at the deputy late Wednesday near a home in Evaro, about 20 miles north of Missoula, police said. 

The man is expected to recover and the deputy was treated for minor injuries, Missoula Police Department spokesman Travis Welsh said. 

The other officer-involved shooting on Wednesday happened in the early morning hours in Missoula. 

A city police officer shot and killed a 20-year-old man police said was “inflicting lethal force” on a woman.

In the later shooting, deputies had responded to a report just after 11 p.m. of a disturbance between the man and a woman.

When deputies arrived, the man had left the home and was found inside a vehicle nearby. Deputies chased the man by vehicle, and at some point, the man began driving his vehicle at a deputy, police said. The deputy opened fire to try to stop the car, and two bullets hit the man, authorities said. The man’s vehicle then hit a tree.

The man was arrested and taken to a hospital for treatment. The names of the wounded man and the deputy were not immediately released.

Authorities are investigating both New Year’s Eve shootings. Welsh said the last officer-involved shooting in the county occurred in November 2013.

In the earlier shooting, sheriff’s spokeswoman Paige Pavalone said police received a 911 call about a domestic disturbance involving three people at about 2 a.m. Wednesday.

Officers tried to stop the suspect in front of a grocery store, but he sped away with a woman in the car. 

He eventually stopped on a ramp connecting West Broadway and North Reserve in the northern part of the city. The 20-year-old man was injuring the woman when he was shot at 3:18 a.m., Pavalone said.

The names of the man who was shot and the officer who shot him were not immediately released. The officer was placed on paid administrative leave.

The woman was not injured in the shooting, Pavalone said.

A body covered by a sheet lay next to the car on the ramp for just over seven hours until Sanders County Coroner Kathy Harris arrived to investigate. 

The ramp reopened around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday after a tow truck moved the man’s car.