Yellowstone County Sheriff Deputies, a Laurel officer and MHP Troopers set up a perimeter at the beginning of the standoff off Ridgewood Lane South on the West End of Billings. (Photo courtesy Sheriff Mike Linder)
On Friday, April 23, 2021, several calls regarding suspicious activity resulted in a nine-hour standoff on Billings’ West End that ended with the suspect dead of a self-inflicted gunshot, a dead body in a van, and an additional suspect in custody. In the morning hours, a Yellowstone County Deputy responded to reports of a suspicious van trespassing on property belonging to the railroad. The vehicle was no longer on the property when the deputy arrived. At 12:30, Laurel Police Department responded to another call of suspicious activity at the business Wood’s Powr-Grip, a vacuum-handling equipment business. Two subjects, a male and a female, were attempting to place a tarp on the same silver van. Officers arrived and made contact with the male subject. He was uncooperative and evasive, and ultimately re-entered the van and fled the scene. Officers did not have enough time to ID the suspects before they fled.
The pursuit involved officers from the Laurel Police Department, Montana Highway Patrol, and deputies from the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s office as they made their way through Laurel into county property before ending up in West Billings. Billings Police Department officers became aware of the situation after hearing reports of multiple accidents along Shiloh Road. The van drove north on 43rd Street West from Grand Avenue before driving onto private property where the van collided with a cargo trailer parked in the yard. Both suspects fled on foot. Officers from the Montana Highway Patrol and Laurel Police Department caught the female suspect, Kristy Lynn Chavez, rather quickly. She was tased and taken into custody without injury. Officers searched the van and found the body of 33-year-old Dennis Gresham
The male suspect, who has now been identified as Michael Lee McClure, fled west on a bicycle trail and cut over to Ridgewood Trail South, where he attempted to force entry into various homes by kicking doors and even firing several rounds at locked doors. He eventually entered the backyard area of a residence on the 4400 block of Ridgewood Trail South and gained access to the home by kicking open a garage door. McClure then barricaded the door with property inside the residence. In a helicopter, Yellowstone County Sheriff Mike Linder and Gary Blaine of Billings Flying Services tracked the suspect from above as he ran through the neighborhood, and witnessed McClure with a handgun attempting entry to various homes. Linder was able to direct officers to the home entered by the suspect. A deputy attempted entry to the garage and found it blocked. As he tried to push the door open, he heard a single gunshot and backed off from the residence.
Officers from the Billings Police Department, Highway Patrol, Laurel Police, and Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office set a perimeter in the neighborhood. Some residents were asked to evacuate, while others were able to shelter in place. Billings Police Chief Rich St. John stated that the neighbors in the area were outstanding. “They were gracious, supportive, and patient with us. They were seriously inconvenienced and some even displaced.” In addition to the officers already on scene, reinforcements were called to assist, including Billings Police SWAT officers, Yellowstone County SWAT officers, hostage negotiators, bomb squad, fire department, AMR, and the detective division of the BPD.
At this point, the standoff truly began. While they initially had contact with the suspect through his cell phone, eventually McClure stopped communicating with law enforcement. Officers used “every mechanism available” to negotiate with McClure, including the house landline, throw phone, and even an attempt to access the home security system. Following multiple announcements over a loudspeaker, the officers deployed a flash-bang grenade “to get the suspect’s attention and let him know we aren’t going anywhere,” according to Chief St. John.
Following several hours of no further contact with the suspect, the decision was made for officers to move on the residence. Using an armored vehicle with a ram, officers pushed in the front door in order to have greater visibility and better audio. In addition, they deployed chemical agents in the home and fired ferret rounds from a 40mm weapon into the attic area through the roof vent in the gable. As there was still no response or activity, officers in armor were raised in Billings Fire Department bucket trucks in order to gain access to the gable vent as another team accessed the attic through the garage access door.
Once officers had the suspect in view, McClure pointed his handgun at officers and fired at least one shot. Officers returned fire on McClure. According to the autopsy report, injuries to McClure which were inflicted by law enforcement weapons were not fatal, and McClure took his own life, ending the standoff.
McClure is a 24-year-old white male who had been in the Billings area since 2018. He had a significant criminal record with numerous contacts with local and state law enforcement, and he was a suspect in a shooting of a woman on the 4100 block of King Avenue East earlier last week. The woman was shot in the head after rounds were fired through the door of her apartment. The injuries were not fatal to the woman. Some of McClure’s record includes multiple pursuits throughout various counties in the area, drug possession, robbery, criminal endangerment, and assault, and there are multiple outstanding warrants for his arrest.
Chavez, the female suspect taken into custody, was charged on Tuesday with the felony deliberate homicide by accountability of Dennis Gresham. Court records indicate that Chavez and McClure approached Gresham’s van asking for a cigarette and a ride. Gresham refused, and an altercation began before the two entered the van armed with guns. The fight continued in the van as Chavez climbed into the driver’s seat to drive away. Chavez told investigators that she heard five gunshots and assumed Gresham was dead. Chavez and McClure then fled with the van, leading to the pursuit and standoff.
Five officers fired their weapons into the attic to end the standoff. They included three members of the BPD SWAT: Lieutenant Brandon Wooley, Sergeant Ben Milam, and Officer Zach Wallis. They are 13, 12, and eight-year veterans of the SWAT team, respectively. In addition, two members of the Sheriff’s Office tactical response team also fired their guns. Sheriff Linder identified these members as Sergeant Harrison Gillen and Corporal Tanner Johnson. They have been with the Sheriff’s Office for four-and-a-half and three years respectively. All officers involved in the shooting are on administrative leave as the incident is reviewed, per department protocol.
Chief St. John emphasized the lengths gone to by law enforcement to de-escalate the situation. “Over the course of eight-plus hours, we used everything we possibly could to resolve this thing peacefully. When we are using robots, drones, cell phones, throw phones, loudspeakers, anything possible over the span of eight hours, you can see the respect of the sanctity of life that the law enforcement in Yellowstone County and across the state have,” explained St. John at a press conference. “If he would have just sat and negotiated and talked with them, they probably would still be there,” St. John said. “Remember, okay, remember who ended this. It was the suspect advancing on our officers, pointing a weapon at them and firing.” Regarding the homeowners of the home, St. John stated that they were out of town when the standoff took place, and the police department has been in contact with their relatives. He explained that the homeowner’s insurance company will be contacted, and he will speak with his bosses regarding the police department’s insurance carrier and how they can assist. “You have a very high-end house that has a door knocked out of it, it’s got gas in it and it’s got some holes in it, and we need to help however we can to make them whole,” St. John said. “And we’re committed to engaging in that conversation.” St. John also requested that residents in neighborhoods in the area of Friday’s incident check their security cameras and other home security systems for anything investigators might be able to view. “We did not have an opportunity to make a neighborhood canvass,” he said. “Please call our detective division so we can have somebody come out and collect that and take a statement.”
