MISSOULA — An Oregon man who spent nearly two weeks in the hospital after being shot by a Montana sheriff’s deputy is charged with trying to kill the deputy during a pursuit in southwestern Montana.
Mark William Collins, 61, whose last known address was Corvallis, Oregon, was charged Wednesday with attempted deliberate homicide for driving a van toward Powell County Deputy John “Austin” Micu on Aug. 4.
Nine of the 11 shots Micu fired at the van went through the windshield, court records said. Two rounds hit Collins in the right shoulder, one hit his left shoulder and one entered his mouth and exited by his left ear, prosecutors said.
Collins made an initial court appearance in Justice Court in Missoula Wednesday on five felony counts after being released from the hospital. He did not enter pleas to any of the charges.
He was then moved to the jail in Deer Lodge. His bail is set at $250,000.
The pursuit began with a witness reporting seeing a van driving the wrong way on Interstate 90 in Powell County early on Aug. 4.
Deputy Micu spotted the van and stopped behind it, but the driver put the van in reverse and collided with the patrol vehicle, spinning it sideways, prosecutors said.
After another near-collision, the van then spun around in the road and accelerated toward Deputy Micu’s vehicle. Micu got out of his vehicle and fired his AR-15 at the van, court records said.
Collins is charged with criminal endangerment for driving the wrong way on the interstate, attempted assault with a weapon for forcing the witness vehicle off the road, assault with a weapon for ramming the deputy’s vehicle and attempted assault with a weapon for trying to crash into the pickup truck.
He is scheduled to be arraigned in District Court in Powell County on Sept. 5. The county attorney’s office had no record of an attorney for Collins.
Collins has an extensive criminal record in Oregon, Powell County Sheriff Scott Howard has said.
Oregon court records list the most recent charges against Collins as driving without a license or insurance in May and June. Court records indicate he has warrants for his arrest for failing to appear in court on several charges, including being a felon in possession of a firearm.