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BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Three people died in a drug-related shooting on Montana's Crow Indian Reservation after entering a house and getting into a confrontation that left two other people wounded, federal authorities said Monday.
No suspects have been identified and the circumstances leading to the violence remained hazy, as authorities interviewed witnesses to piece together what happened, FBI senior supervisory agent Travis Burrows said.
Tribal leaders said the killings were linked to methamphetamine use but they have not released specifics.
Denise Stewart Nomee, 25, her husband, Leslie Frank Nomee Jr., 27, and Nehemiah Brokenrope, 30, were killed in the Friday shooting in Lodge Grass, a town of roughly 400 people located 25 miles north of the Wyoming border, tribal officials and the FBI said.
One of the people who was wounded remained hospitalized, Burrows said.
In response to the shootings, Crow Chairman Alvin Not Afraid Jr. called for tribal members to volunteer for a community watch program to help prevent future violence, spokesman Levi Flinn said.
Not Afraid issued the request during a Monday town hall meeting attended by about 100 tribal members, Flinn said. The chairman cited a shortage of police on the 5,000 square-mile reservation in part due to vacancies within the law enforcement division of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, which oversees the reservation.
Jose Figueroa, the BIA police chief for the reservation, referred questions to a spokesman for the agency who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A 9 p.m.-to-5 a.m. reservation-wide curfew imposed after the shooting was to remain in place until further notice as a precaution, Crow officials said.
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