Sheriff's Office: shooting justified

The shooting of an armed man by two Kalispell police officers on Jan. 12 was justified, according to the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office.

An investigation found that Kalispell Police Sgt. Chad Zimmerman and Officer Eric Brinton opened fire on Ryan Pengelly, 30, at his home after he pointed a rifle at the officers and refused to drop it.

Pengelly, who was shot four times, remains hospitalized in stable condition at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

The Kalispell Police Department sent out a press release with excerpts of the report’s findings Thursday evening, but a full report has not been released pending review by the Flathead County Attorney’s Office.

Sheriff’s Detective Commander Brandy Hinzman concluded in the report that after reviewing all available evidence and statements, “I feel that Sergeant Zimmerman and Officer Brinton acted within Kalispell Police Department policy and Montana state law. It is the conclusion of the investigative team that the shooting was justified.”

Officers had responded to a call that Bonnie Pengelly, Ryan’s mother, might be homicidal or suicidal and had access to weapons. She physically resisted arrest and began screaming, the press release stated.

James Malley, 23, emerged from a bedroom where he had been sleeping. Malley recognized the uniformed men as officers and complied with their commands.

Ryan Pengelly then emerged from the bedroom where he had been sleeping, carrying a loaded rifle in his hands, according to the report.

Zimmerman told investigators that Pengelly had the rifle pointed directly at him, and both Kalispell officers said “Zimmerman hollered ‘drop the gun’ prior to shots being fired,” according to investigators.

Investigators interviewed Pengelly.

“He admitted that he pointed the rifle directly at one of the officers,” the report stated. “When asked if the officer said anything to him, Ryan responded, ‘...He said put the rifle down, but he didn’t give me enough time to do so.’ Ryan also stated, ‘That’s probably what I did wrong, I pointed the rifle at him; it was wrong. If I would have known it was a police officer I would have put it down immediately.’”

Bonnie Pengelly told investigators she heard officers yell the word “gun” prior to firing.

Malley first told investigators he remembered an officer yelling to drop the gun, put it away, or get away from it, but later amended his statement to say that he did not know what they were yelling.

Pengelly was hit by four of the six rounds fired by the officers. Hinzman has said she did not know the extent of Pengelly’s injuries, but that she believed he was hit in the chest, abdomen and leg.

“We don’t have his medical records back yet,” Hinzman said Friday. “He has been really super-cooperative, though.”

Pengelly is a decorated Army veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan and one tour in Iraq before he sustained a traumatic brain injury in a bomb blast. The home on Looking Glass Avenue where the shooting occurred was built in 2012-13 by Operation FinallyHome, a nonprofit that provides wounded soldiers and their widows with American-made, mortgage-free homes.

Kalispell Police Chief Roger Nasset said Friday that both officers are expected to return to work next week. Officers receive a mandatory 10-day leave after major critical incidents, he said.

“It’s an extremely stressful situation for an officer,” Nasset said.

Nasset does not know if Pengelly or his mother will be charged with any crimes.

“I did confer with the County Attorney’s Office, but we have not come to a conclusion on that,” Nasset said.

Bonnie Pengelly is under a court order not to have contact with her son or his girlfriend, Melissa Pleasant, for allegedly making comments to co-workers and family members about wanting to shoot Pleasants and kill herself.

Nasset said the shooting has not changed his mind about whether or not officers need to be outfitted with body cameras that collect video footage. Currently, Kalispell officers are equipped with audio recording gear that must be turned on manually or can be activated by turning on a car’s flashing lights.

The officers involved in the shooting did not have their audio recording devices activated at the time of the shooting.

Nasset said he is not against body cameras, but he would like the state Legislature to enact some guidelines that address how the gear can be used to balance the right of personal privacy.

“It’s not that anybody is trying to hide anything, but let’s get some strong ground rules in play,” Nasset said. “In this case, if the officers had body cameras on, I’m not sure they would have seen Mr. Pengelly because of the way their torsos were facing.”

Kalispell has had very few complaints of excessive force, he added.

He also explained that while people might think that officers legally must give some sort of verbal warning before firing a weapon, that is not the case. The law gives officers the right to use lethal force when it is needed to neutralize a deadly threat.

“In this case, it kind of all happened simultaneously,” Nasset said. “The entire call was less than three minutes long. Everything evolved rapidly.”

Nasset said the event appears to be “a tragic situation where the officers were there lawfully and legally and the officers felt threatened and had to defend themselves.”

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