3yo Witnessed Sheldon Chase Commit Triple Murder On Montana's Crow Reservation

**Whisper** · October 6th, 2011, 02:17 PM

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - A 3-year-old child witnessed the killing of three people on Montana's Crow Reservation and named a family member as the shooter, according to an FBI affidavit.
Sheldon Bernard Chase, 22, was captured in Washington state after a manhunt and is due before a federal judge on Thursday to face charges that he killed his grandmother, cousin and cousin's boyfriend at their rural home on Tuesday.
The cousin and boyfriend had two-year-old and three-year-old sons.
Authorities and people who know Chase say he suffers from mental illness. The FBI affidavit said Chase had stopped taking his medications prior to the shootings, although it does not specify when.
Chase had left his mother's house in North Dakota the day before the shooting, taking with him a "Sitting Bull commemorative gun," according to the affidavit.
Shortly before noon Tuesday, Chase's 21-year-old cousin, Levon Driftwood, sent a text saying Chase had arrived on the Crow Reservation, where he had been attending college and living with his grandmother, Gloria Cummins.
A fight ensued between Chase and Driftwood's boyfriend, Rueben Jefferson. Chase shot Jefferson, Cummins and Driftwood and was seen driving away from Cummins' house at 12:10 p.m., according to the affidavit.
"During an interview of one child, age 3 years, he disclosed Chase and RCJ (Jefferson) were fighting and Chase shot RCJ. The child further stated Chase also shot GSC (Cummins) and LFD (Driftwood)," the affidavit stated.
Chase's capture Wednesday night in Spokane followed a manhunt that stretched from the rugged Crow countryside across much of the northern U.S. Schools on reservations in southeastern Montana and western North Dakota were closed and residents stayed indoors for safety during the search.
Eric Barnhart, FBI supervisor in Billings, said investigators were still trying to piece together what led to the shooting.
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http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/1563...il&Format=HTML

Triple murder suspect 'who shot his grandmother and cousin' on Little Bighorn reservation is tracked down two states away
22-year-old allegedly gunned down victims just miles from site of Custer's last stand

A mentally disturbed man on the run since apparently killing his elderly grandmother two days ago has been caught, the FBI has said.
Sheldon Bernard Chase, 22, was arrested in Spokane, Washington, following the shootings at the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana, in which two others were also killed.
Chase is suspected of opening fire with a rifle on Tuesday afternoon to kill his grandmother, Gloria Sarah Goes Ahead Cummins, 80, his cousin, 21-year-old Levon Driftwood, and her boyfriend, 20-year-old Rueben Jefferson.
The arrest follows a day-long search in which police, game wardens and tribal authorities combed county roads looking for Chase.
Schools on reservations in southeastern Montana and western North Dakota were closed and residents stayed indoors for safety during the search.
Eric Barnhart, FBI supervisor in Billings, said that investigators are attempting to piece together what led to the shooting.
'At this point, we still don't know,' he said, declining to release any details about the arrest. 'With some history of mental illness, that's an X factor.[...]
It is a few miles south of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument - the site which marks the spot where Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his cavalry unit died fighting Indian forces in 1876.
Chase lives with his uncle in a mobile home about 30 metres from the modest log house, city clerk Cody Not Afraid said.
Police tape stretched across Cummins's property yesterday and Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement officers kept onlookers from approaching.
It was unclear what led to the shootings or how Chase was identified as a suspect.
Earlier yesterday, Barnhart had said that authorities considered Chase to be armed and extremely dangerous.
People in Lodge Grass described the victims and the suspect as coming from a prominent, well-respected family in the community.
Chase moved there about a year ago from North Dakota, where he had grown up, and was attending Little Bighorn College about 20 miles away in Crow Agency, said Reverend Jim Antoine, the priest at Our Lady of Loretto Catholic Church.
Crow Tribal Chairman Black Eagle said: 'I don't know him. He is not a tribal member, but his mother is a tribal member. His father is from North Dakota. That's all I know.
'We are doing as well as we can trying to comprehend what happened today.
'We have been deeply affected and have asked Indian Health Services to provide grief counselling for this tragedy

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1a1hbGhOy

Suspect: Police have arrested Sheldon Bernard Chase

Officers remove another body from the property after the shooting on Tuesday

Tragic: Police remove a body from the house where three Indian people were shot dead in Lodge Grass, Montana