If you live in the Belgrade area and you were awake later in the evening Monday night, chances are you heard lots of sirens just outside Belgrade High School. And that’s because multiple law enforcement agencies responded to reports of a man open firing on two Belgrade City Police.
Belgrade’s Chief of Police says it all started Monday evening around 10:30pm with reports of a disturbance.
Yelling, screaming and sounds of breaking glass were heard at a 4-plex apartment unit off of Hoffman Drive, directly across from an entrance of Belgrade High School.
Two responding police officers showed up and heard gunshots. The officers then ran and used their car as a barricade.
“Then more shots came out. The vehicle was struck with the officers behind it. The officers did not return fire as there was no clear shooting lanes, nothing like that,” said Police Chief E.J. Clark.
“And then the person never came out of the house, it was out windows.”
Chief Clark says the standoff lasted a while, and then a fire started from inside the building.
Belgrade Police would not verify whether the man shooting at officers was the one who started the fire, telling MTN News the scene was still under investigation.
“We don’t know the exact number of rounds that were fired. We do know there were several rounds fired,” said Clark.
“There are homes in the area, we had to evacuate people out of that 4-plex and give them a place stay,” he added.
No officers, neighbors or witnesses were injured as a result of the standoff. And Chief Clark says all responding agencies worked strongly as a team.
“It went as well as it could have, with nobody being injured,” said Clark.
“There were some displaced people which is unfortunate, but nobody was hurt and so now we just have the long process of getting all the evidence to find out why did this happen, do a lot of interviews with people that could maybe give us insight to what led up to it.”
The Belgrade Police Department did not identify the suspect or give MTN News any additional details about him, however, officers said the suspect sustained some minor injuries, and was treated at Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital.
The suspect is being held at the Detention Center in Bozeman.
