BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A 22-year-old man accused of killing three family members on the Crow Indian Reservation is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Missoula Thursday.
Sheldon Bernard Chase will appear before Judge Jeremiah Lynch on first-degree murder charges stemming from last week’s shootings. He faces life in prison if he is convicted.
Chase was captured in Washington state on Oct. 6 — two days after his grandmother, cousin and cousin’s boyfriend were found shot to death at their home near Lodge Grass.
What sparked the violence remains unclear.
Authorities have said Chase took a rifle from his mother’s house in North Dakota the day before the shootings. According to an FBI affidavit, a 3-year-old boy who witnessed the killings said Chase had gotten into a fight with his cousin’s boyfriend.
