SWAT team leader fired 15 rounds at suicidal woman

The Flathead County sheriff’s deputy who shot a suicidal woman outside of Columbia Falls on Oct. 10 fired 15 rounds from an AR-15 rifle, according to an investigative report released last week.

Michelle Gentry, 54, was taken to Kalispell Regional Medical Center in critical condition but recovered and was charged with felony assault on a peace officer. She pleaded not guilty in Flathead County District Court on Dec. 12.

The Kalispell Police Department investigated the incident, and a summary of the report was released by the Flathead County Attorney’s Office on Dec. 13.

The incident at Gentry’s residence on Eastland Crossroads, at the south end of Columbia Falls Stage Road, began when Flathead County deputies responded to a report of an armed and suicidal woman.

Deputies were able to make contact with Gentry by phone and confirm that she was armed and suicidal. When she refused to exit the house, negotiations were initiated and the SWAT team was called in.

SWAT team leader Caleb Pleasants was one of the last team members to arrive and was not informed that Gentry had made statements about wanting to commit “suicide by cop.”

When Gentry exited the home about 30 minutes after the county’s Peace Keeper armored vehicle was in place, she reportedly waved her revolver around, aimed it at law enforcement officers and shouted, “Do it, do it, do it, do it (expletive) now.” The report doesn’t state whether Gentry ever fired her handgun.

Pleasants, who was inside the armored vehicle, said that when Gentry was about 15-20 yards away, she made eye contact with him and raised her handgun, pointing it directly at him.

“I thought I was going to get shot,” he told Capt. Scott Warnell, the Kalispell officer who wrote the report summary.

Pleasants then fired a volley from his AR-15, but the majority of the rounds hit the cowling of the armored vehicle. He took cover, checked his rifle for a malfunction and then fired a second volley, hitting Gentry twice. All told, he fired half of his 30-round clip in the incident.

The Kalispell Police Department’s report summary states that initial negotiations determined that Gentry was suicidal and homicidal.

The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office review board reported in early November that no policy violation had occurred, and the use of force case is now considered closed.

Based on the review board’s recommendation, Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry returned Pleasants to duty.

A six-year sheriff’s office veteran, Pleasants was on paid administrative leave following the incident.