An investigation is underway after a police officer shot a man dead in downtown Billings on Tuesday afternoon.
State law enforcement has been assigned to examine the circumstances surrounding the Billings Police Department's response to a man wielding a machete outside of a bank, which escalated to an officer firing five rounds. The officer, Zach Wallis, has been placed on paid administrative leave.
“The incident was in the middle of the day and in a heavily-traveled area,” said BPD Chief Rich St. John during a Wednesday press conference. “I would request that anyone who may have any type of video to contact our detective division. We’d like to gather as much information as we possibly can.”
At around 1 p.m. on Tuesday, BPD received multiple calls of a man waving a machete outside of the First Interstate Bank building at the intersection of North 31st Street and Fourth Avenue North. The man was also yelling at people on the street, St. John said, prompting seven officers to initially respond.
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Those officers spent the next seven minutes trying to de-escalate the situation, according to St. John. When the armed man tried to leave the area, a BPD officer used a Taser, which brought him to the ground. While officers worked to restrain the man, he started reaching for the machete, St. John said.
“Based on the proximity of officers and the threat posed from the machete,” St. John said Officer Wallis fired five rounds from the patrol rifle he was carrying. Emergency crews brought the man to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. The man and Wallis were standing within a few feet of one another at the time of the shooting, according to St. John, and there was no indication that the man had any other weapons aside from the machete.
“Understand the danger of edged weapons,” St. John said. “I think even our officers really underestimate how dangerous somebody with even the smallest knife can be.”
Earlier this year, a 17-year-old boy was fatally stabbed at a Billings home. Another man is facing a felony assault charge after allegedly stabbing a man outside of St. Vincent de Paul on Monday.
Wallis, an 11-year veteran of the department and current member of BPD SWAT, had previously been placed on administrative leave following a 2021 standoff that ended with five law enforcement officers opening fire on a homicide and shooting suspect. Wallis was among the five people who entered a home invaded by a man armed with a handgun. When they breached the attic, the man pointed the gun at officers, who responded with lethal force.
Per department protocol, the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation will review all of the available evidence surrounding Tuesday’s shooting. An internal investigation will coincide with DCI’s, St. John said, spearheaded by BPD’s Office of Professional Standards.
The evidence gathered for BPD’s report will include testimony from witnesses and any available recordings. Those recordings will come from dashboard cameras inside police cruisers, body cameras and any submitted by witnesses. BPD’s report of the fatal shooting will be provided to DCI for a final review before that report is turned over to the Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office. Camera footage of the shooting will become available following the conclusion of the investigation, which could result in a coroner’s inquest.
There have now been six homicides investigated in an around Billings so far this year. Four of those victims died due to gunfire.
Nobody else was harmed during Tuesday’s brief standoff and subsequent shooting, St. John said.