Dangerous incidents end without injuries, with aid of law enforcement
Responding to a domestic dispute or a domestic violence call is one of the most dangerous situations a law enforcement officer may face. Emotions may be running extremely high, making the actions of those involved unpredictable. The presence of law enforcement may be viewed as an intrusion and they could become a target. Sometimes, one of those involved may even want to die and may even want the police to pull the trigger.
According to charging documents filed in Ravalli County Justice Court by Deputy District Attorney Thorin Geist, something like this has happened twice this month, one week apart, in unrelated cases.
The first occurred on January 4, when four Hamilton Police officers, including Officer Bryson Lewis, Sgt. Joshua Scoggins, Officer Norm Williams and Officer Michael Eldridge, all responded to a call from a woman stating that a male individual was threatening to kill his mother and sister in an apartment in Hamilton and that the man had a bloody nose and that a female had just left the apartment and was putting clothing into a vehicle in the parking lot.
According to the charging documents in the case, Officer Lewis and Sgt. Scoggins heard several loud “bangs” as they approached the apartment complex. But this was followed by a second set of 5 to 7 shots that they recognized immediately as gunfire.
Approaching the upstairs room from which the noise had come, the officers observed several bullet holes in the door. A third officer, Eldridge, arrived and they announced their presence and ordered the shooter to come to the door. The person inside responded, according to the charging affidavit, by firing 15 rounds through the door, forcing the officers to take cover. The shooter, later identified as Tyler Kain Butler, continued to fire another 20 to 30 rounds through the door as the officers called for back-up.
According to the documents, while this was going on a couple of men approached the apartment complex and were intercepted by one of the officers. He said they demanded to speak to Butler, the shooter. It states that the men were uncooperative and Officer Williams, “ultimately took control of the phone and began speaking with the defendant, who continued to shoot through the front door.”
Responding to questions from the officer, Butler said his family was not present and were safe in the parking lot and that no one else was present in the apartment. Williams told him that “nobody else needed to get hurt, and the Defendant responded that he would kill any law enforcement officers that came to the door.” When the officer told him again that nobody needed to die, that was followed by several more shots through the door. The next time he repeated that nobody needed to get hurt, however, the affidavit states “the defendant said he was coming out and not to shoot him.”
According to the affidavit, he did exit and initially complied with the officer’s instructions, “but became combative and stated multiple times that officers should shoot him.”
Instead, Butler was taken into custody. An AR-15 rifle with a bipod was found inside the apartment facing the front door. The gun was still smoking and had
set off a smoke alarm. Loaded gun magazines were found nearby and several pipes “used to ingest drugs were observed in plain view.”
When two officers went to check on the tenant living in the apartment directly across from where the shots were fired, they found that door also riddled with bullet holes. When nobody responded, officers kicked open the door to determine if someone inside may have been injured and need medical help. The woman who made the initial calls to report the disturbance, Mariah Lentz, was located inside the residence, “terrified, but uninjured despite the ordeal.”
It was later determined that 29 rounds had entered her apartment. She was in the living room when the bullets started shooting through and was able to crawl to the back bedroom where she hid next to a bathtub for cover. One bullet penetrated all the way to the back bedroom.
Downstairs tenants reported hearing an argument between the upstairs tenant and his girlfriend. The woman was observed leaving and a man arrived a short time later. The shooting began shortly after the man left, they said. Many tenants heard the argument, and several heard the gunfire, but no other tenants were injured.
At the county detention center, according to the charging documents, Butler waived his rights and told detectives that he had gotten into a fight with his girlfriend and her mother that evening. He said after they left he noticed that an AK-47 rifle was missing from beside his bed, which made him upset. He then went and got his AR-15 rifle from the gun safe, set it up on the floor and began firing through his bedroom door.
A search warrant was obtained the following day and several firearms, and several hundred rounds of ammunition were recovered from inside the apartment along with several pipes used to smoke marijuana. Sixty-seven spent .223 casings were found in the vicinity of the rifle.
In an inmate kiosk call, reviewed by officers, Butler reportedly told his mother and sister that he doesn’t remember what happened.
He is quoted saying “I f….d up really bad,” and that he “blacked out, lost my shit.” He was also quoted as saying, “I’m glad I didn’t hurt anybody.”
Damage to the building and to the inside of Lentz’ apartment and possessions are estimated at more than $1500 each.
Butler has been charged with three felony counts of attempted deliberate homicide for having purposely or knowingly attempted to cause the death of the police officers Lewis, Eldridge, and Sgt. Scoggins; one count of assault with a weapon for purposely or knowingly having caused reasonable apprehension of death or serious bodily injury in Mariah Lentz using a weapon; one felony of criminal endangerment; and one felony count of criminal mischief for the property damage.
In an unrelated incident, about a week later, Deputy County Attorney Thorin Geist entered a felony complaint against Daniel Marc Lieberg, alleging that on or about January 11, 2020, Ravalli County Sheriff’s Deputy Daryl Petz responded to a 9-1-1 report that a man was on his way to a residence on Antrim Way [northeast of Stevensville] to “have a shoot-out with the people in the house.”
Lieberg, it states in the affidavit of probable cause, had recently been dating a woman named Heather Moore. After breaking up, it states, Moore had returned to the residence on Antrim Way to move her belongings out of the home. She was accompanied by some friends as well as her mother and Lieberg’s mother.
It states in the affidavit that Lieberg had become “increasingly paranoid” and apparently had security cameras installed at the home. He saw Moore and her friends at the home through the video camera system and initiated communication with her. In that communication, it stated, Lieberg made threats to have a shoot-out with Moore and other people who were at the home.
He sent text messages to her, the affidavit states, saying “you have turned me into a monster and now I am going to show you what I am capable of.” Additionally, “I hope you have the cops are waiting for me cuz I can’t f*****g wait to shoot it out with them.”…. “Now you get to watch the cops kill me. Hope you got everything you wished for, looks like you just turned my parents’ house into a war zone, congratulations….”
Deputy Petz arrived at the residence and met with all the individuals at the house before Lieberg arrived. He was told that Lieberg had just called and that he was on his way and had a gun. When he observed Lieberg’s vehicle approaching on the road, Deputy Petz drew his weapon and the vehicle came to a stop 15 feet behind the patrol car.
According to the affidavit, Lieberg refused to get out of his car after commands and was screaming profanities at the people on the scene and to Deputy Petz. Petz observed that Lieberg had a handgun that he held up to his head. At some point, Lieberg’s mother and Moore’s mother approached him in his vehicle and eventually were able to convince him to give them the handgun.
However, Lieberg also had a shotgun “that he then brandished and pointed towards the roof of the van.” He then told Deputy Petz that he was leaving the scene and drove away from the home heading east.
Petz observed that the handgun had the safety off, was loaded with a live round in the chamber, and seven more live rounds in the magazine. He alerted RCS Sgt. Ike Jessop about Lieberg leaving the scene.
Sgt. Jessop spotted Lieberg on Highway 93 and turned around to follow him and a chase began that ended behind the Ace Hardware in Florence.
Liebeg refused to get out of his vehicle and refused commands to show his hands and put them out the window. For about the next 40 minutes, Jessop would continue to engage and talk to Lieberg, who at one point was observed to be holding a gun up to his mouth. He said he wanted to talk to his mother and then he was requesting to talk to both her and his girlfriend, but still refused to give up the gun or get out of the vehicle.
When he did, according to the affidavit, he faced Sgt. Jessop holding up a black pump action shotgun with the barrel pressed under his chin and the other hand on the trigger.
“Sgt. Jessop could see from his body language that he appeared to be on the verge of shooting himself. His body would continue to tense up and he would wince in anticipation,” it states in the report. He kept asking Jessop if he was going to be put in prison.
After about a minute of going back and forth with Jessop, Lieberg placed the butt of the shotgun on the ground and hunched over. He then “put the shotgun down, took a couple of steps away from it and then physically and emotionally broke down on the ground near the bumper of his vehicle.” He was then placed under arrest and taken into custody.
Lieberg has been charged with one count of felony intimidation, one charge of family member assault, a misdemeanor, and three misdemeanor violations for fleeing or eluding a police officer, driving while license is suspended or revoked and failure to stop.
Both Butler and Lieberg remain in jail.