Drive-by shooter receives state prison sentence

A Flathead Valley man involved in a drive-by shooting on the west side of Kalispell four days before Christmas 2019 recently was sentenced to serve time in state prison.

Dray Scott Wieting, 19, of Kalispell, was arrested July 10, 2020, in Columbia Falls. He was wanted by the Kalispell Police Department for his alleged participation with three others in the shooting. He remains in the Flathead County Detention Center.

On Sept. 23, Wieting appeared in Flathead District C0urt and received a 25-year sentence to the Montana State Prison by District Court Judge Dan Wilson. Earlier this summer Wieting agreed to plead guilty to assault with a weapon and criminal endangerment.

For his conviction on the assault charge, Wieting received a 15-year sentence. He received a 10-year sentence, all suspended, on the endangerment charge. The sentences will be served consecutively.

Wieting received credit for 440 days spent in custody.

He originally was charged with two counts of assault with a weapon and three counts of criminal endangerment.

Another case pending against Wieting for allegedly stealing a vehicle and crashing it in Columbia Falls on June 4, 2020, was dismissed. However, he was ordered to pay restitution of $9,500 to the victim of the vehicle theft, according to court documents.

Wieting was the last of four people sought in the Dec. 21, 2019, shootings that left several Kalispell homes riddled with bullets.

Wieting must pay restitution, along with co-defendants Joseph Trapper Bukowski and Ansen Walter Ingraham, of more than $16,000 to the victims in the shooting as well as two insurance companies that paid for repairs to the homes damaged in the drive-by shootings.

In the complaint against Wieting, a woman said he sold a gun to her friend in late December 2019. At the time, Wieting allegedly admitted to being involved in the shooting. The complaint also indicated Wieting’s statement was corroborated by social media records.

The woman also said she was at a party when she allegedly heard Wieting say he wasn’t stupid enough to let his shells go out of the car during the shooting.

Two of the three other participants in the shooting pleaded guilty and are serving time in state facilities.

Bukowski, 21, pleaded guilty to his involvement in the drive-by shooting and was sentenced in September 2020 to a total of 25 years with 10 suspended. He is serving his sentence in the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge.

Bukowski pleaded guilty to one count each of criminal endangerment and assault with a weapon.

Ingraham, 20, received the same sentence of 25 years with 10 suspended. Ingraham is serving his time in the Dawson County Correctional Facility in Glendive.

Ingraham pleaded guilty July 9 to one count of assault with a weapon and one count of criminal endangerment.

A fourth individual involved in the shooting was a juvenile at the time and the status of his case is not known.

On June 4, 2020, when Bukowski admitted guilt in the shooting, he said Wieting was present and fired shots at the residence during the incident, according to the charging document.

During a previous court hearing, Bukowski admitted to driving the SUV involved in the crime. He also said he had a handgun, but didn’t fire it.

During the investigation, police learned Ingraham allegedly had threatened a person who lives in the targeted duplex on Seventh Avenue over an ongoing dispute, telling that person he would “get what was coming to him.”

According to court documents, Kalispell Police received a report of “shots fired” at 12:08 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 21, near a duplex on Seventh Avenue West in Kalispell. It was later reported that two other residences on Sunnyside Drive and Ashley Creek Lane were shot several times.

Reporter Scott Shindledecker may be reached at 758-4441 or sshindledecker@dailyinterlake.com.