Man killed by Billings police was armed, chief says

Two police officers were placed on administrative leave Tuesday after shooting an armed 29-year-old Box Elder man to death Monday night. 

The man was killed during an altercation with Billings Police officers Ryland Nelson and Justin Bickford Monday night around 10:20 p.m. on the 2200 block of Avenue C, said Police Chief Rich St. John during a press conference.

The county coroner's office had not yet released the man's name Tuesday, pending familial notification. 

Both Nelson and Bickford will be on administrative leave pending a use-of-force investigation, St. John said. Neither police officer was wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting, but audio and video footage from nearby police cars will be reviewed, he said.

The detectives division is investigating the shooting. The department will also conduct the use-of-force investigation, which will be reviewed by the Montana Department of Justice and the Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office.

During the press conference, St. John also provided a clearer narrative of the fatal shooting during an altercation that lasted “under 30 seconds.”

On Monday night four police officers were dispatched to a “suspicious activity” call and encountered three suspects in an ally between the 2200 and 2500 block of Avenue C.

St. John was unclear what the nature of the “suspicious activity” was.

Two cars were parked close together in an apartment's parking lot and one car’s hood was up. The man who was killed “appeared to be working on the car’s engine,” St. John said.

"We're not sure why they pulled in (the parking lot)," St. John said. "Or what they needed to do."

Three suspects were near two cars in a parking lot of an apartment complex, he said.

The Box Elder man was outside one of the cars and officers tried to detain him, search him for weapons and handcuff him, but he refused to comply, St. John said.

An altercation began and officers wrestled the man face-down to the ground. While on the ground the man had his hands under his body and refused to bring his hands behind his back to be handcuffed. 

“During the struggle an officer deployed his Taser, but (it) had no effect,” St. John said.

Then, the man pulled a semi-automatic handgun from the waistband of his pants and pointed it at an officer. One officer saw the gun and yelled a warning.

Nelson and Bickford fired “multiple rounds." It's unclear how many rounds the officers shot or how many hit the man. The man died at a local hospital. 

The initial investigation appears to show that the man did not fire any shots from his handgun, St. John said.

The two officers “suffered minor injuries.”

St. John said all three suspects were “well-known to law enforcement” to be involved in drug activity. One of the two cars was stolen.

The man who was killed had a parole violation from Hill County. The man’s handgun was the only other weapon found on scene, he said.

Some drug paraphernalia was later found in one of the cars, St. John said. 

The fatal shooting is the 13th homicide in Billings this year.

The last homicide happened just over a week ago on Oct. 4, on the 1300 block of Custer Avenue. Billings resident Kyle Reed, 33, was shot and killed after an argument broke out between him and a resident in the neighborhood.

In June, federal marshals shot and killed a 19-year-old Colorado man, who was wanted on an outstanding warrant. It was the first officer-involved fatality of 2020 in Billings.

This is the first police killing by the Billings department since 2019. In January of 2019, Chance Ray Mavity, 26, was killed when police responded to a pawn shop owner's report that Mavity and two others were trying to sell stolen items. Mavity allegedly pulled a gun on officers and exchanged fire with them before being killed.

The shooting was ruled justified in a coroner's inquest later that year.

This will be the 17th fatal police shooting in Yellowstone County since 2012. 

Fatal police shootings in Yellowstone County since 2012