Several officers were placed on leave after a fatal shooting

BOZEMAN, Mont. — Four Bozeman Police Department officers and a Gallatin County Sheriff’s deputy are currently on administrative leave following a fatal officer-involved shooting earlier this week.

On Wednesday evening, Bozeman Police officers responded to a call regarding a 29-year-old woman who was in possession of a handgun and threatening to kill herself and others.

When the officers reached the woman’s apartment, she was not there. They searched the area for about two hours before finding her in the parking lot of the Bridger Peaks Shopping Center.

Crisis negotiators and additional police officers from the city and district’s joint special operations team were dispatched to the scene.

The negotiations lasted about two hours and 45 minutes before the woman dropped the weapon and backed away.

According to the documents, she then ran back to the gun, picked it up and waved it around.

Two Bozeman police officers responded by firing several shots from their rifles. Two other Gallatin County officers and a deputy used less-lethal tools.

“The distance they had to get to her before she could get to the gun was definitely not enough,” Bozeman Police Chief Jim Veltkamp said. “She was still way too close to do that.”

The woman was struck by gunfire and was pronounced dead at the scene. There were no injuries to any of the responding police officers.

Veltkamp promised that his officers would have taken those steps if other reasonable or non-lethal options were available.

“That’s the absolute last thing any of them want to do,” Veltkamp said. “If I see her back there after this incident, I swear it will be on everyone’s faces.”

Bozeman police are conducting an internal review of Wednesday night’s events, as is the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation. As part of these investigations, footage from officers’ body cameras and vehicles at the scene is analyzed.