A 39-year-old Kalispell woman has been charged with felony criminal endangerment after leading law enforcement on a high-speed chase through downtown Kalispell on July 31.
Shalome Marie Denny was arrested after stealing a woman’s phone and then leading police on a chase through town. She is currently behind bars at the Flathead County Detention Center.
According to a press release from the Kalispell Police Department, law enforcement received a report of suspicious activity on Liberty Street at around 8:30 p.m. on July 31. A woman said that another woman, later identified as Denny, stopped to borrow her phone and then drove off with it. The reporting party said that there was what appeared to be an injured male in the passenger seat and there was blood on the door and fender of the car.
Kalispell police officers located the vehicle and attempted to pull it over but the driver failed to yield to officers. As Denny sped away she called 911 and told a dispatcher that she had a handgun and wanted the officers that were chasing her to back off. The dispatcher tried to convince Denny to pull the car over but she refused.
Because Denny was armed and possibly had an injured man in her vehicle, law enforcement continued to chase her. The pursuit went from Liberty Street south to the downtown area before heading back north on U.S. Highway 93. Denny eventually turned east on West Reserve Drive where she drove around spike strips deployed by Flathead County Sheriff’s Deputies. Denny turned on to Cherry Lynn Road in Evergreen to avoid another set of spike strips that had been deployed by the Montana Highway Patrol. Denny drove down a dead end road where she was boxed in by three Kalispell police vehicles. Denny tried to reverse her vehicle when officers entered the car and, after a short struggle, took her into custody. Denny was the sole occupant of the car. Law enforcement later found the man who had been in Denny’s car and learned that he was uninjured and had gotten out of the car before the chase started.