By Matthew Brown
The Associated Press
GLASGOW, Mont. — Authorities were investigating Sunday the link between a shooting suspect and the woman he allegedly killed outside a hospital.
The suspect also wounded two people who came to the victim’s aid late Saturday. Officers found him after following a trail of blood, and the suspect was killed in a shooting involving police. Police declined to specify who was responsible.
The man’s identity has not been released. No other suspects were being sought, Valley County Sheriff Glenn Meier said Sunday.
At least 50 federal and local agents using tracker dogs followed the suspect to a house just south of town late Saturday, sheriff’s spokeswoman Samar Fay said.
Melissa Greenhagen, a 37-year-old part-time emergency medical technician, was fatally shot outside Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital late Saturday afternoon. The gunman also fired on a hospital nurse and her husband, who went to assist the technician. Those victims were in stable condition, hospital spokesman Nickolas Dirkes said.
Identities of the two injured victims have not been released, but residents said word had spread about those involved.
“Everybody knew who was killed and everybody knew who was hurt,” said Marie Penderson, a bartender who said she was an acquaintance of the victims. “We were all saying she couldn’t be dead. We refused to believe it.”
The gunman was not believed to be a current or former hospital employee, authorities said.
“This has shocked all of us. Glasgow is place you feel comfortable raising your family,” said Randy Holom, chief executive of the hospital.
Meier and Glasgow Police Chief Lynn Erickson said it was the first homicide in the Glasgow area in more than a decade.
During the manhunt, the hospital and a basketball game at the high school gym were locked down, and all roads into the town were blockaded for about five hours. Trains along the BNSF railway also were suspended until the suspect was found. People were told to stay at home and lock their doors.
Glasgow is a primarily agricultural community of about 3,500 residents in northeastern Montana, about 50 miles south of the Canadian border.