Police shoot, kill suspect after standoff at Billings home

BILLINGS (AP) — Police in Billings shot and killed a man during a standoff at a home late Friday night.

Billings Police Chief Rich St. John told television station KULR that the man was shot when he charged officers after they approached him where he was hiding in the attic. St. John said officers first tried to coax the suspect out using chemicals and drones but were unsuccessful. Police have not released the name of the man who was killed, or the names of the officers that fired at the man.

The standoff happened several hours after police found a body in a van that crashed after its driver fled from deputies during an attempted traffic stop.

St. John said Yellowstone County sheriff’s deputies attempted to pull over the van because of a traffic violation earlier that day, but the driver sped away and the deputies eventually stopped their pursuit. A few hours later, officers with the Laurel Police Department responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle.

Those officers found the same van from the morning pursuit. They said a man outside of the van was behaving strangely before he got back in the vehicle and drove away. Another chase ensued, joined by county deputies and the Montana Highway Patrol.

That chase ended when the van crashed in a neighborhood and a man and woman inside the vehicle ran away. Law enforcement officers noticed the man had a gun and saw the pair running from house to house, presumably looking for unlocked doors.

Police said the woman was subdued with a Taser and taken into custody. The standoff with the man began after he hid inside a nearby home, St. John said.

Police have not released the identities of the man or the woman. They have also not yet released the identity of the body found in the van or released a cause of death.

The case remains under investigation by the Montana Department of Criminal Investigations.