Freeway Shootout affects local attorney, cattle rancher
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POLSON – A shootout between a father and son and law enforcement last week has some local implications.
Lake County’s deputy civil attorney Walter E. “Wally” Congdon said a cattle ranch that he owns a mile east of Missoula County just north of Interstate 90 received some stray shots from the gunfire.
On Tuesday, May 16, Justin Boswell, who rents a house from Congdon, said he woke up between 4 and 4:30 a.m. when it sounded like something struck his bedroom window. He sat up in bed and then heard a second thump and heard his air conditioning unit spewing freon.
Boswell, who’s rented from Congdon for over six years at the ranch two miles east of Beavertail Hill State Park, said he didn’t hear anything else and went back to bed. Later that morning he went outside, saw a bullet hole in his window AC unit, and called 911.
“It shook me up a little bit after I realized what happened,” Boswell said. He added that the Granite County Sheriff’s Office took the AC unit as evidence.
Another renter, Tracy McMillan, lives up the hill from Boswell in a trailer.
She also woke up around 4:30 a.m. May 16 after she heard gunfire.
McMillan said she heard two shots initially followed by an approximate 20-second lapse and then another 15 more.
“I thought someone was shooting at the cows,” she said, adding that she saw six police cars heading westbound on I-90.
On Saturday, Congdon said as far as he knows none of his cows were hit by gunfire, although a windshield on one of his six pickups at the ranch was apparently struck.
Congdon said the gun battle between Lloyd Barrus, 61, and Marshall Barrus, 38, and law enforcement stretched three miles farther west on I-90 before it ended with Lloyd Barrus’ arrest. Marshall Barrus was pronounced dead the next day at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula.
Lloyd Barrus has been charged in the death of Broadwater County Sheriff’s Deputy Mason Moore, 42, near Three Forks. Barrus faces 16 felony attempted homicide charges and his bail has been set at $2 million, according to reports.
The shootings started on Montana Highway 287 in Broadwater County, reached speeds up to 100 mph and ended at mile marker 128 in Missoula County. The 100-mile high-speed chase on I-90 began when officers spotted the men near Butte.
“It was a pretty spooky deal,” said Congdon of his ranch and tenants being involved.
Congdon, who sells beef to hospitals in Kalispell and Polson, has worked for Lake County for two years. He lives in Missoula and also owns a cattle ranch in Elmo.
