State inmate involved in 2021 shooting sues Lincoln County

A 2021 shooting involving a Lincoln County man and officers from the county Sheriff’s Office was deemed justifiable, but a recently filed federal civil rights lawsuit calls into question the actions of those officers, as well as alleged policy and procedural violations and the ensuing investigation.

Tristan Kirk Assance, 35, filed the suit against the county on Jan. 11 in federal court in Missoula. The Whitefish firm of Gersh, Simpson and Joos and the Missoula firm of Siefert and Wagner, is representing Assance, who remains in the Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby. 

Judge Donald W. Molloy is handling the case.

The suit, filed by veteran attorneys Caleb Simpson and Nathan Wagner, alleges Assance’s rights under the Fourth, Eighth and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution were violated when he was shot by county officers Kirk Kraft and Brandon Holzer.

According to court filings, Kraft fired and struck Assance with a Taser while Holzer fired four shots from an AR-15 rifle, striking the man twice in the right shoulder and right leg. It also alleges Assance has suffered permanent impairment, extreme emotional distress and other permanent injuries that arose from the shooting.

The suit seeks a jury trial where compensatory and punitive damages would be determined as well as money for past and future medical expenses, lost wages and other damages. It also seeks attorney fees and cost as allowed under law.

According to the suit, LCSO Capt. Boyd White, Det. David Hall, Det. Dan Holskey and deputies Kraft and Holzer arrived on the scene nearly simultaneously and saw Assance, his wife and a friend of the couple standing on the porch outside the front door of the residence. The court filing also alleges Assance and his wife were not actively engaged in a physical altercation and that Capt. White reported Assance was not holding a gun when law enforcement arrived.

White and Kraft asked Assance to speak with them and told the two women to move to the side, which they did. At that point, Assance retrieved a purple handgun which had been placed on top of a large, blue trash can. He was ordered to drop the gun, but Assance repeatedly responded, “kill me, kill me, I love my kids, I love my kids.” White and Holzer told Assance that he wasn’t going to jail and didn’t have to go to jail, court documents said.

After about a minute of conversation between Assance and the officers, Assance either put the gun in his waistband or dropped it behind him, the suit alleges. Assance then moved to the trash can and began to set up his phone to video or livestream the encounter. While facing away from the officers, Capt. White alleged Assance had a knife in one hand and his phone in another. White then loudly shouted, “Kirk (Deputy Kraft) less lethal, Kirk less lethal, let’s try it!” The term “less lethal” is used in reference to use of a taser device. The suit alleges Capt. White’s exclamation was made in a manner that both Deputy Holzer and Deputy Kraft could hear it.

Kraft aimed the Taser at Assance and deployed it from about 5 yards away, hitting Assance in the back and the back of his left arm, about 36 seconds after Capt. White’s command to use “less lethal.”

The successful Taser deployment immobilized Assance and caused him to fall to the ground immediately. According to the suit, Deputy Kraft did not announce “taser, taser, taser” before deploying his Taser, which is contrary to law enforcement training, the suit said. The policy to exclaim “taser, taser, taser” before deployment of a Taser device is purported to eliminate the possibility that other members of law enforcement on scene will mistake the sound of Taser deployment from that of the sound of the discharge of a firearm.

Immediately, within less than one second of Deputy Kraft’s successful Taser deployment, Deputy Holzer fired four shots from his AR-15, the suit said. Capt. White loudly exclaimed to Deputy Holzer, “That’s taser, taser” to prevent Holzer from taking subsequent shots and injuring Deputy Kraft or the two women who were present, according to the suit.

The court filing also goes on to assert that Deputy Holzer mistook the sound of the Taser from that of a firearm and that he shot Assance because he believed Assance had fired upon Deputy Kraft.

Later that year, Maury Solomon of the Montana Office of the Public Defender, examined Deputy Holzer on Sept. 17, 2021, in relation to the incident wherein he agreed that he was taught that, “taser, taser, taser” should be announced prior to the deployment of a taser device, court filings show. The suit also alleges that during Solomon’s examination, Holzer admitted he did not observe Assance with a gun in his hand before firing at him.

Kraft is no longer with the department after retiring from the Sheriff’s Office in 2023 while Holzer is currently a county detective. White left the Sheriff’s Office recently and now runs the county Emergency Management Agency.

According to Montana Department of Corrections information, Assance is serving a partially suspended sentence for his role in the incidents that occurred from Jan. 13 to Jan. 14, 2021, at a residence on Fallen Bear Lane in Libby.

Assance, a Native American from Canada, was sentenced to 10 years, with five suspended, for an assault with a weapon conviction in 2022. Assance entered an Alford plea to one felony count of assault with a weapon. Seven other charges were dismissed.

According to state Board of Pardons and Parole information, Assance had a parole hearing in January 2023. But his bid for freedom was denied and his next hearing was set for January 2025. 

The board wanted Assance to complete victim impact, anger management and a skills group program at the Shelby facility. It also wanted to see him work with mental health professionals in regard to previous trauma. The board also cited the nature and severity of the offense, his previous criminal history and the need for risk reduction.

According to previous reporting in The Western News, court records indicated that Assance had become distraught on Jan. 13 after learning a trip from Canada to the Libby area would likely result in a warrant for his arrest. He had been sentenced at the time to nine months of house arrest in Canada.

Sheriff's Office deputies and detectives responded to 165 Fallen Bear Lane in Libby on Feb. 14 after receiving a report of a domestic disturbance. They arrived at the property about 8:30 a.m., according to a press release.

The victim, later identified in the suit as Assance’s wife, of the domestic disturbance, told Det. Dave Hall that Assance had acted erratically over the past day, threatening to take her life and kill himself repeatedly.

On Feb. 13, the victim drove him into town to get food and with the hope of calming him down. The trip did little to calm his nerves. While driving into town, Assance reached speeds of 104 miles per hour and threatened to crash the truck into another car, court documents said. The victim begged him to slow down and ultimately pulled his leg off the accelerator.

Parking near U.S. Highway 2, Assance took a walk. The victim drove back home. Around 3 p.m., Assance texted her and she made two trips into Libby to find him. The two met up at a local shop around 5 p.m. In court documents, the victim described Assance as smelling of vodka and still vocally angry when he hopped into her truck.

After returning to Fallen Bear Lane, Assance built a fire in a woodshed using gasoline, court documents said. The victim said Assance began swinging a hatchet and accused her of “calling the cops.” She put out the fire in the woodshed and assured him she hadn’t called the cops.

Assance later passed out on a sofa and the victim went to bed. She awoke about 2 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 14 to the sound of Assance bringing gas cans inside the house. The victim said Assance was “threatening to burn the house down, threatening to burn me with him.” When she tried to call 911, he seized her mobile phone and broke the house phone.

Assance kept saying he wanted to die and told the victim to shoot him. At one point, she aimed her .38 revolver at him, but she told authorities that it was unloaded. She was trying to get Assance to leave, she told Hall, according to court documents.

Assance then allegedly began drinking more vodka while he paced with her Glock. He pointed the gun at the victim and at his head, court documents said. She convinced him to go outside for a cigarette. Assance then got in her face while holding the gun to his head and told her again he was going to shoot himself. He fired the gun and the ejected casing hit the victim, according to court documents.

Later, the victim got in touch with a friend who came to the home in an attempt to calm Assance. 

After arriving at the house, the friend hid behind several cars and used the victim's phone to call 911. The friend stayed on the line until deputies arrived. Neighbors recalled hearing a short volley of gunshots after deputies arrived. 

Shelly Taylor-Fletcher, a nearby resident, told The Western News then that she was in bed at the time. “I heard four gunshots,” she said on Jan. 15. “Shortly after that, we saw the police and the ambulance show up.”

Following the shooting, a Libby Volunteer Ambulance crew transported Assance to Cabinet Peaks Medical Center. An ALERT helicopter then airlifted him to Kalispell Regional Medical Center. Lincoln County Sheriff Darren Short said at the time that no one else was injured in the incident.

According to the policies and procedures of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, an internal administrative investigation is required when a county deputy is involved in an officer-involved shooting.

According to a redacted memo dated April 1, 2021, Brad Dodson, the Lincoln County Undersheriff at the time, reported to Short that Flathead County sent an Officer Involved Shooting Investigative team to investigate the Feb. 14 incident at the home on Hidden Bear Lane. The memo is part of the court filing.

Dodson’s memo to Short indicated Assance was shot twice by LCSO personnel during a domestic disturbance. 

“Based on the investigation by FCSO OIS, the Lincoln County Attorney, Marcia Boris determined that (name redacted) the actions by the officer who shot Assance were appropriate and the use of force is justified,” Dodson wrote in his memo to Short.

Incidentally, Dodson left the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office in 2021 and went to work in Green River, Wyoming. According to wyomingnews.com, Dobson worked in the Sweetwater County Public Defender’s Office before taking a job with the Green River Police Department in June 2022.

But the suit also took issue with Flathead County’s investigation of the shooting. It cited a Flathead Beacon story that reported on four fatal shootings by Flathead County officers between May 24, 2020 and February 2021.

According to the suit, “Despite pending investigations into Flathead County’s conduct and the shootings, members of the Flathead County Sheriff’s Department volunteered and/or were recruited to assist LCSO in investigating the officer-involved shooting of Tristan (Assance) on Jan. 14, 2021.

“Based on information and belief, the incident was not investigated by POST (Montana Peace Officer Standards and Training) or DCI (Montana Division of Criminal Investigation).

The suit also states that, “the evidence in this case will prove otherwise and substantiate that there is a culture of indifference and blatant dismissiveness of the peoples’ constitutional rights among the culture of law enforcement in northwest Montana.”