Dramatic High Speed Chase with Shots Fired Ends in Powell County

Early Thursday morning law enforcement agencies from several jurisdictions, including Missoula, engaged in a high speed chase that began in Gallatin County, closed I-90 in both directions for several hours, and finally ended in Powell County.

Powell County Sheriff Gavin Roselles spoke with KGVO News and described what happened.

“The Powell County Sheriff's Office was contacted this morning at approximately 3:00 a.m.,” said Sheriff Roselles. “We had information from Bozeman PD and Gallatin County that they had a subject that was involved in a pursuit where shots were fired by the suspect at pursuing officers. That pursuit continued through Silverbow County, Deer Lodge County and into Powell County.”

After stop strips were deployed successfully, the suspect continued to flee from authorities. Sheriff Roselles has more.

“The officers who were involved in Powell County and the others from adjoining counties took up a safety position and the suspect was contained in his vehicle,” he said. “The determination was made to call for special teams assistance, which was provided by both Silver Bow County and Missoula County and they arrived with armored vehicles and took over negotiating with the suspect at that time. At approximately 0735 hours this morning, the suspect was taken into custody with no injuries.”

Sheriff Roselles said the suspect is in custody in the Powell County Jail.

“We do have the identity of the suspect, and he is in custody at the Powell County Jail at this time,” he said. “Because the primary investigation is being done by Gallatin County, I'm going to leave some of those details out of it. However, I can tell you that he is a 35 year old male and we believe him to be currently a Montana resident.”

Sheriff Roselles said law enforcement officers all remembered the high speed chase that began with the fatal shooting of Broadwater County Sheriff’s Deputy Mason Moore by Marshall and Lloyd Barrus in 2017, and took precautions to ensure that would not happen again.

It is not currently known what incident the suspect was fleeing from when the high speed chase began.

Interstate 90 was closed for several hours early Thursday morning near the Garrison Junction while the incident was underway.