EAST HELENA — A Lewis and Clark County sheriff’s deputy responding to a request for a welfare check on a suicidal man who had self-inflicted injuries and was armed with a pistol ended with the deputy shooting and killing the man.
Sheriff Leo Dutton tells the Independent Record the call came in just before midnight Thursday reporting concerns about a man at a residence east of East Helena.
Dutton says deputies tried to negotiate with the man for about an hour, but were unable to get him to put down the gun. The sheriff says the man’s actions led the deputy to shoot him to protect himself and others.
The deputy is on administrative leave and Dutton has asked Montana’s Division of Criminal Investigation to investigate. The names of the victim and the deputy involved have not been released. The six deputies that responded were not injured.