Witness disputes Kalispell shooting scenario

A witness to the police shooting inside a home in west Kalispell on Tuesday says that initial police accounts released to the media do not match up with his recollection of events.

But Police Chief Roger Nasset is standing by his officers’ accounts that they gave a warning before firing at resident Ryan Pengelly and categorically denied the witness’s claims, though he said he can’t release more specific details until an investigation is complete.

Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry also said that the man’s account to the Inter Lake conflicts with what his investigators have found so far. The sheriff’s office is actually handling the investigation of the incident.

According to a press release issued by the Kalispell Police Department Wednesday, “The officers gave Pengelly verbal commands to drop the weapon. He did not comply with the officers commands, raised his rifle and pointed it at the officers.”

Pengelly’s housemate, James M. Malley, 23, said he woke up from sleeping in a front bedroom in the home after he heard yelling, and walked into the confrontation between police and Pengelly’s mother, Bonnie Pengelly, who was also living in the house.

Malley said he saw Bonnie Pengelly on the ground, wrestling with two officers trying to handcuff her. He said he wondered why Pengelly, a woman in her 50s, was getting handcuffed. The officers visually acknowledged Malley’s presence, he said.

Malley said he wasn’t sure of how much time passed, but he thought it might have been a couple of minutes at most before he saw officers turn their attention to the back of the building and within seconds fire an estimated 12 rounds out of Malley’s view.

“I hear the shots start to ring out. I didn’t really know what they were firing at,” Malley said of the frantic few seconds. Malley said he could not confirm what was said to Pengelly before he was shot, nor did he even know that his friend was shot at the time. “I did not hear them say drop it. I did not hear them say lower your weapons.”

Malley said he was ordered to the ground and handcuffed by officers, but that he called out Ryan’s name to see if he was OK. Despite being hit by bullets, Ryan talked back and said “yeah” a few times, Malley said.

Chief Nasset said he stands behind his officers’ accounts of the shooting “100 percent.” He said that Malley’s most recent account of the shooting varies substantially from the statement given to Flathead County sheriff’s deputies.

“There is a major discrepancy between what he told you and what he told them,” Nasset told the Inter Lake. “It’s drastically different.”

Curry was also hesitant to get into the specific details of what any one witness had said until the investigation was complete.

“That’s not our information, based upon multiple interviews,” Curry said. “We are interviewing everyone involved. Sometimes people think they see or hear things that they didn’t see or hear.”

Malley said that sometime after the shooting had happened, he could see that Ryan had been hit by at least one of the gunshots in the stomach as he was being taken out on a gurney. Malley himself was taken from the house to a patrol car and to the sheriff’s office, where he said he was given several different answers as to whether he was being officially detained or not.

After asking if he needed an attorney, Malley said he was told that he was not being arrested. A deputy took his statement and gave him a ride to his parents’ home.

Malley said he was concerned about his friend and wanted his side of the story told.

“Ryan likes cops. He just came out to make sure that there wasn’t someone in the house that wasn’t supposed be. His mom was yelling for help... It was literally seconds after he came out of the back of the house before they fired on him.”

Malley said he visited Ryan Pengelly in the hospital Thursday and reported that he was awake and talking and was expected to recover. Malley moved into the Pengelly residence three weeks ago; the two have been friends and co-workers for two years. Pengelly and Malley are both taxi drivers who had planned to become over-the-road truckers at the end of the month.

Malley said that when he last spoke to Ryan, who is in the intensive care unit, that is still the plan.

“It’s just going to take a little longer,” Malley said. “We both really like trucking.”

Malley said Ryan has never had a speeding ticket or any other issues with law enforcement that he knows of.  

When the pair went into downtown Whitefish on the weekends, Malley said Ryan would often speak with the officers on the street in a cordial, conversational way.

“He’s not anti-law enforcement at all,” Malley said.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.