Jassy
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b]This is great ending to a tragedy for your community..This celebration will help with the healing process..Thanks[/b]
Glasgow Inquest Jury Finds Gunman's Death by Federal Agent Justified
By GREG TUTTLE
Of The Gazette Staff
GLASGOW � Seven hours after a gunman killed one woman and injured two others during an attack at Glasgow's Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital, a team of officers tracked him in the dark through the snow and found him hiding in a remote stand of trees near the Milk River. The man refused to surrender and was shot down by a female federal agent when he charged with a knife.
The federal agent, Bureau of Land Management Ranger Alexandra Burke, was found by a coroner's inquest jury on Tuesday to have been justified in the use of deadly force that ended a random shooting spree by a man whose motive still remains a mystery.
After hearing eight hours of testimony at the Valley County Courthouse, the jury of five men and one woman returned with a verdict 30 minutes after beginning deliberations. The panel determined that the gunman, Roger Sellers, died on Jan. 17, 2009, by a gunshot and the death was a justifiable homicide.
The inquest hearing, required by state law and presided over by Fergus County Coroner Dick Brown, included testimony from numerous law enforcement officers from several agencies who converged on the city after hearing that a gunman had attacked the hospital, killing one person and wounding two others. The hearing was the first full public account of the incident following a decision by local authorities to release little information until the inquest. Scott and Suzanne Billingsley, the couple who were injured by gunfire, also testified, describing a chaotic scene when they realized they were under fire in the hospital parking lot.
Killed at the hospital was 37-year-old Melissa Greenhagen, whose body was discovered by Scott Billingsley as he drove through the parking lot. He ran back the emergency room to summon help, he said, thinking that Greenhagen had slipped on the ice and hit her head.
But when he and his wife, who worked as a hospital nurse, ran to Greenhagen, they were both hit by gunfire. Suzanne Billingsley said she told her husband she thought she had been hit by a paintball gun.
"I couldn't believe someone was actually shooting at us," she testified.
But Scott Billingsley said he knew immediately he had been hit by gunfire. He told his wife it was not a paint ball gun and that he'd been hit. The couple took cover, with Suzanne jumping into the cab of Greenhagen's pickup and Scott getting behind his Chevrolet Subur-ban parked just feet away.
As bullets hit around them, Suzanne Billingsley said she felt "very exposed and uncomfortable." She had taken a .22-caliber bullet in the side, while her husband was hit in the hip.
Scott Billingsley said he grabbed a 9 mm handgun from his rig and yelled at the gunman to drop his weapon. He could see the man about 80 yards away, he said, near a sand pile. He also called 911, but told the jury he does not remember making the call, which was recorded at 4:47 p.m.
"He's shooting and I'm shooting back," Scott Billingsley told the 911 dispatcher.
Scott Billingsley said he fired once with the pistol, saw the bullet hit near the gunman and decided to grab his hunting rifle. As he began to take aim, the gunman continued to fire, hitting Suzanne Billingsley a second time in the foot. Officers then began arriving, and two said they fired rifle shots at the gunman. Valley County Deputy William Soper said he thought he struck the gunman in the shoulder.
An autopsy later revealed Sellers suffered a serious gunshot wound to his left hand.
The gunman disappeared toward the Milk River behind the hospital, and officers eventually found a bloody backpack and a large dog tied to a tree near the riverbank. An officer on the roof of the hospital reported his suspicion that the gunman may be hiding in a van parked nearby. After a delay, officers threw tear gas into the van. Sellers was no longer in the van, but he had left behind his rifle and other clues, including footprints in the snow.
U.S. Border Patrol Agent Phillip Wright testified that he found the footprints and began tracking Sellers through the snow. Occasionally, he also came across drops of blood and blood smears where Sellers had crossed a fence or fallen down.
As the night grew dark and the city remained locked down, Wright met up with Burke and two other officers near a farmhouse about a mile from the hospital. One of the officers, Daniel McKee of the Fort Peck Tribal Police, had his canine dog. The fourth officer was Lt. Brian Erwin, also of the tribal police department.
All four officers testified about how they tracked the gunman through the snow in the dark night using flashlights. Wright said he eventually found Sellers standing by a tree near the river. He could see a knife, and Sellers refused his commands to drop the weapon.
Instead, Sellers began to run toward him, slipped in the snow and fell. McKee let go his dog, which bit Sellers on the jacket. Sellers hit the dog, breaking a tooth, then continued toward the officers. All four were yelling at him to drop the knife and get down.
"It was obvious his intentions were to harm somebody," Wright said.
At one point, Sellers told the officers to shoot him. He then charged Burke and McKee.
McKee said he stepped to his left and fired one pistol shot that missed. Almost immediately, Burke fired a single blast from a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with buckshot. Sellers went down and died almost immediately.
Burke said she had no choice but to fire.
"I remember thinking, he didn't stop and I need to shoot," Burke told the jury.
It was 11:30 p.m.
Sellers' motive remains unknown. Glasgow Police Chief Bruce Barstad said a search of Sellers' rental house revealed knives and other bladed weapons, as well as "religious to somewhat violent" writings. He described the writings as "gibberish and sporadic." Noth-ing in the house proved a clue to the shootings.
Sellers was raised in Utah, Barstad said, joined the military and married a woman in Germ any. He returned to Utah after his discharge and was divorced from his wife, who eventually married his brother. Sellers moved to Glasgow about two years before the shooting and was a recluse, talking little to anyone. He had been seen in the days before the shooting walking a large dog.
Montana Department of Criminal Investigation Agent Mark Hilyard led the investiga-tion into the shooting. He, too, said Sellers' motive remains unknown. Greenhagen was not targeted, he said, and Sellers actions appear to suggest he wanted to die by "suicide by cop."
"I can't give a definite answer as to why this happened," he said.