Wounded Tax Protester Leaves Hospital For Jail Investigation Will Examine Use Of Force By Lake County Deputy
Gordon Sellner was jailed here Thursday to face a charge of attempted murder in connection with the shooting of a deputy sheriff three years ago.
Sellner, 57, joined his wife and two sons-in-law in the jail after being released from a Missoula hospital. Lake County Sheriff Joe Geldrich said Sellner was denied bail by a Polson judge.
Sellner was wounded Tuesday when officers raided his home and sawmill in the forested Swan Valley, where he had been an open fugitive since 1992 and had threatened to shoot if officers tried to arrest him.
“The doctor has said he can be released,” Missoula County Sheriff’s Detective Dave Fowlkes said Thursday morning.
Fowlkes said a bullet went through one side of Sellner’s neck just below the ear, and exited an inch or so lower on the other side, grazing his shoulder.
He said the bullet was a .223-caliber “hardball,” a slug designed not to expand or shatter when it hits, lessening injury to the person shot.
Sellner was sitting in a chair with an intravenous tube in his arm Wednesday when a judge went to his hospital room to inform him officially of the charge against him. Bail also was denied at that time.
The Missoula Police Department will investigate the shooting of Sellner. Police Chief Pete Lawrenson said the investigation probably will be completed next week, and the report will go to Lake County Attorney Kim Christopher.
Geldrich asked Missoula police to investigate the shooting because his deputies and state Justice Department investigators participated in the stakeout and raid.
The investigation is expected to center on whether the shooting was justifiable use of force by a Lake County deputy, whom Geldrich has declined to identify.
The sheriff said the deputy returned fire when Sellner opened fire into the woods with his rifle, apparently after seeing the lawmen hiding in the woods. Sellner’s family members say that Sellner was target practicing with his firearm when he was either ambushed or shot by a law enforcement sniper.
Sellner’s two sons-in-law and his wife, Roberta Sellner, were arrested Tuesday on charges of obstruction filed in connection with the sheltering of Sellner.
Geldrich said he tried for three years to persuade Sellner to surrender in hopes of avoiding an armed siege like those that developed when federal agents moved against white separatist Randy Weaver in Idaho, and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas.
On Tuesday, as on several other occasions in recent weeks, Geldrich had sent undercover agents to Sellner’s sawmill posing as customers. The agents hoped to arrest him by surprise. The officers in the woods were the backup team.
MEMO: Cut in Spokane edition