GREAT FALLS - The Great Falls Police Department has provided new details about a crash that happened on Thursday.
It happened at about 2:30 p.m. near the intersection of Eighth Avenue North and Ninth Street, involving a Ford Explorer and a Honda Accord.
911 dispatchers began receiving calls from witnesses who said that two people were outside of the vehicles and pointing weapons at a person.
Captain John Schaffer, the Patrol Services Chief of the GFPD, said that when police officers arrived, they found bounty hunters from A To Z Fugitive Recovery at the scene who had apparently detained a person.
Officers determined that the bounty hunters had committed "multiple" criminal offenses, but Schaffer did not elaborate.
One of the bounty hunters was arrested and taken to the Cascade County Detention Center; the name of the suspect has not been released at this point.
One man was taken from the scene in an ambulance; there is no word on the nature of his injuries.
Captain Schaffer also said that a person posted video of the incident to Facebook and incorrectly labeled the bounty hunters as undercover Great Falls police officers.
The person's Facebook post stated:
GREAT FALLS MONTANA UNDERCOVER COPS. He’s complying and still gets tasered as they talk shit. What happened to protect and serve? What about some courtesy. How do they expect anyone to respect them when they act like this.
The person later posted an update: "So I was contacted and it was stated that these are bail bondsmen."
Captain Schaffer noted that misidentifying someone as a police officer is dangerous and irresponsible.
No other details have been released, including the cause of the crash.
We will update you if we get more information.
