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Beaverhead County Deputy Shoots Driver During Traffic Stop

No word on driver's condition

By Molly Priddy

DILLON — A Beaverhead County sheriff’s deputy who had stopped a suspected drunken driver shot the man after he brandished a rifle.

Sheriff Frank Kluesner told The Montana Standard the driver was taken to the hospital. No information on the driver’s condition was immediately available.

Kluesner says county dispatchers received a citizen report of a suspected drunken driver on Interstate 15 about 6 miles south of Dillon just before 7 p.m. Tuesday. The deputy found the vehicle on a frontage road about 10 miles south of Dillon and pulled the driver over.

Kluesner says the driver grabbed a rifle and the deputy shot him.

The sheriff’s office asked the state Division of Criminal Investigation to investigate.

Kluesner did not release the names of the deputy or the driver.