BOZEMAN — Police at Montana State University are looking for three suspects after a Tuesday night attempted armed robbery at one of the residence halls.
When someone witnessed three men wrestling with another on the floor over what looked like a black handgun -- the three men bolted out of the building.
"We had an incident reported at Gallatin Hall, which is one of our residence halls here on campus. Someone overheard a scuffle," MSU spokesman Michael Beck said.
He added that the scuffle led to a tense scene just outside of a dorm room -- and into the hall,.
"Came out into the hallway to find several men wrestling in an altercation or struggle of some kind and when that person came out, three of them bolted."
A witness says the men got into a red dodge pickup truck and took off - heading west down Garfield Street towards 19th Avenue.
"Officers are still investigating. They have not found a weapon yet," Becker said.
He told MTN News that MSU immediately sent out a "timely warning" -- unlike earlier this month when a different incident sparked a shelter-in-place mode.
This is another example of another kind of a notification that MSU sends out. In this case, police did not rule this to be an imminent danger to safety or to people and so we did not do the text message this time but we did do what's called a timely warning."
Police believe this to be an isolated incident but still -caution is key.
"As more questions get asked, as police do their work, we'll get new facts and new information," Becker said, adding that the victim in this was not a student — but a guest visiting the hall.
Becker says keeping a general awareness of your surroundings, your doors locked at night and avoiding walking alone at night are all good ideas until police get to the bottom of the incident.
