KALISPELL – The probe into a late Wednesday fatal shooting in Northwest Montana continues.
A Martin City man is behind bars after being accused of shooting another man in the chest during an altercation in Hungry Horse.
James William Quen, 47, is being held in the Flathead County jail on an initial charge of deliberate homicide.
Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry says deputies were dispatched to a home in Hungry Horse around 11:40 p.m. after a caller reported a shooting.
"It’s unfortunate when we have a homicide like we did last night but they are a relatively rare event,” Sheriff Curry said.
When deputies arrived on the scene, Sheriff Curry says they found the victim already dead from a gunshot wound to the chest.
The victim has been identified as Bradley Allen Winters, 33, of Hungry Horse.
"Apparently there was an altercation between the suspect and the victim. It sounds like there actually were several people involved in that physical altercation,” Sheriff Curry said.
“At one point the suspect did pull out a handgun there were several rounds that were fired and we believe the last round did strike the victim in the chest,” Sheriff Curry added.
Sheriff Curry says the victim died fairly immediately. Quen was taken into custody without incident at his home about an hour later at 1 a.m.
"Certainly these situations are always dangerous. In this case, we have somebody who died as a result of this incident. People don’t always do things that make sense and that’s what we’re here for,” Sheriff Curry said.
“We continue today to work on the investigation, we’re still conducting a lot of interviews trying to determine what the fight was over and what exactly happened,” Sheriff Curry added.
He says his office is still investigating the incident but he expects the Flathead County Attorney’s Office to formally file charges yet this week.
Detectives are currently searching for two persons of interest that may have witnessed the incident.
Anyone with information to help the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office connect with Shivaun Crothers and Ronald Kevin Lindsey is asked to contact (407) 752-TIPS.
