Suspect Arrested After Alleged Shootings

[Anthony]

Kelly Dee Megard, 52, allegedly was involved in two shootings Tuesday. The first was on a busy street in Billings. The other was about an hour later at Pictograph Cave State Park in Montana.
Surveillance video shows Megard driving up to Shipton’s Big R, where he bought ammunition at 12:31 p.m. Tuesday, according to the police report.
"Sixteen minutes later, police responded to the first shooting. In that incident, Megard shot at a 32-year-old mother and her two children, ages 6 and 7, as he chased them in a car up and down Rimrock Road," said Billings Police Chief Rich St. John. They eventually got away.
In the second incident, Yellowstone County Sheriff’s deputies responded to Pictograph Cave State Park, where a person had begun to shoot at people near the park’s museum after driving a vehicle off of Coburn Road and down into a ravine, the police report stated.
Tourists ran for shelter as he yelled and fired shots at trees and plants. According to several witnesses, Megard was yelling incoherently and firing shots into bushes.
Highway Patrol troopers arrested Megard and found a 9mm handgun on him.
During the police interview, Megard said he saw a woman driving a sport-utility vehicle and claimed he saw a male passenger in the car with a gun.
He told police he had intended to get the guy before the guy shot at him.
“The defendant claimed he did not intend to hit the female and claimed he did not know there were children in the back seat,†police reports stated.
While he was in custody, Megard gave a statement to a Billings police detective, he allegedly told police the had used methamphetamine two days before.
In a press conference, Chief Rich St. John said Megard exemplified "desperate people high on drugs" showing no regard for life as they make "irrational and dangerous decisions."
No one was injured in either shooting incident, however bullets came within inches of hitting two people, police said.
"This could have been a tragedy," St. John said.
Megard is currently in jail while waiting official prosecution from Yellowstone County. He is scheduled to be charged with attempted homicide, criminal endangerment and parole violation.