by John Dowd
On Monday, April 1st, around 4:30 p.m. Hamilton Police officers were involved in a shooting with a robbery suspect at the Riverside Conoco Convenience Store. The engagement took place after the suspect threatened and reportedly charged at the responding officer.
The officers attempted to provide life-saving measures to the suspect, who was then transported by ambulance to the hospital. He expired there from his wounds and was pronounced dead.
The Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office and Hamilton Police Department issued a press release that detailed the event and investigation. However, very little information is available at this time.
The officer is currently on leave during this investigation, as is standard protocol. The Montana Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI) will be doing the investigation. According to Hamilton Police Department Chief of Police, Steve Snavely, there will be a coroner’s inquest where DCI will present their findings. Snavely stated that an inquest is also standard procedure in these types of officer involved shooting situations.
“We have seen tremendous support, and we greatly appreciate all that support,” said Snavely. He was especially proud of this during a time in American history that he believes is seeing the lowest support for law enforcement ever. He added, “Hamilton is a great place to be a police officer.”
In all his 26 years with the department, Snavely noted there have only been three of these types of shootings. However, these are always a danger of the job, but he added that fortunately, neither the officer, nor any other community members, were harmed during the exchange.
John Doe says
“Hamilton is a great place to be a police officer .” Yes, because there is not any crime to speak of and the press doesn’t ask questions..
anomalous (I fear giving my name as the police in Hamilton can't be trusted) says
Correct me if I am wrong but it seems like a member of the community was killed in this exchange, it seems the dead man brought a knife to a gun fight. I wonder if he was given a chance to give himself up or was, he killed without a chance to surrender. The word on the street is the man killed suffered from mental illness. The public needs to see body cam and closed-circuit videos of the shooting.