SWAT team responds to Hungry Horse shooting

A 34-year-old Hungry Horse man was arrested Wednesday, Oct. 17, following a shooting incident reportedly over a dog. The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office’s SWAT team and its armored vehicle responded during the incident.

Benjamen Davis was arrested and preliminarily charged with criminal endangerment and assault with a weapon, both felonies. He was transported to the Flathead County Detention Center.

The incident began about 4:45 p.m. when a resident on First Street South West in Hungry Horse reported that a man from down the street had fired several rounds into his house and was screaming about his dog.

According to initial reports, the man allegedly emptied a whole clip from a large handgun, but none of the shots hit anyone.

After initially arresting the wrong man, deputies surrounded the house Davis was in and waited for enough resources to “tactically remove him from the place safely,” Flathead County sheriff Chuck Curry said. Neighboring houses were evacuated during the standoff.

“We attempted to hail him once we got everyone in place, then deployed a flash-bang in his yard to wake him up in case he was passed out inside,” Curry said.

Those measures proved unsuccessful, the sheriff said, so the SWAT team “used a small amount of tear gas, and that was successful.”

About an hour and a half after the standoff began, Davis was taken into custody around 9 p.m.

“We’re always very cautious of these situations. That’s why we have a SWAT team,” Curry said. “The goal is always to protect civilians and our guys first.”