COLSTRIP – A shooting at a Colstrip bar left two men dead and another critically injured, Police Chief Larry Reinlasoder said Friday.
Bar patrons subdued the suspect, James Wilson, 51, late Thursday.
“An officer had to pull people off of the suspect when she arrived on the scene and keep them from doing any more harm,” Reinlasoder said.
Wilson was taken to a Billings hospital for treatment of his injuries and then was to be booked in to the Yellowstone County jail.
Reinlasoder said Wilson had apparently been in an altercation at the Whiskey Gulch Saloon earlier Thursday evening and was kicked out.
“When he returned, he was armed with a handgun,” Reinlasoder said. “The people that were fatally wounded, as far as we know, were innocent bystanders and had nothing to do with the original altercation that occurred at the bar.”
One man died outside the bar, and another man was mortally wounded just inside the door and died later at a Billings hospital. A third man was shot in the head and was in critical condition in surgery at Billings Clinic, Reinlasoder said.
The shooting victims’ names and ages have not been released.
Wilson faces two counts of deliberate homicide and one count of attempted deliberate homicide.