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Vance Ledeau

Age : 34

Gender : Male

Race : Native American

Date : 08/27/2022

Location : Missoula Smokejumper Center, 5700 block of Highway 10 West

City : Missoula

County : Missoula

State : Montana

Agency : Missoula County Sheriff’s Office; Missoula Police Department; Missoula Airport Police; Montana Highway Patrol; U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement; Bureau of Land Management; Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during investigation

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/27/2022, law enforcement shot and killed 34-year-old Vance Ledeau near the Missoula Smokejumper Center in the 5700 block of Highway 10 West. Missoula police had responded to several reported robberies in the city, and police identified Ledeau as the person they were seeking in connection with those incidents. A Missoula County sheriff’s deputy located him shortly after 11:30 a.m.
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Multiple agencies converged on the area, including the Missoula Police Department, Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service law enforcement, Missoula Airport Police, Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office and Montana Highway Patrol. Police said the extensive response was prompted by what they characterized as a threat to public safety.
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Initial authorities released remarkably little information about the killing. They did not identify which law-enforcement agency fired, which officer or officers fired, whether Ledeau fired at police, or even whether he possessed a firearm. The Montana Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation took over the investigation and declined requests from local journalists for those details while the investigation was underway.
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Ledeau’s identity was not publicly released until more than two weeks after his death. On 09/13/2022, Lake County Sheriff-Coroner Don Bell identified him as 34-year-old Vance Ledeau. Even then, authorities released no substantive additional account of the circumstances under which police shot him.
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Later information indicated that Ledeau was holding an air pistol resembling a handgun rather than a conventional firearm when police killed him. The original police announcements had not disclosed that fact. Public reporting continued to describe the underlying robbery allegations without providing a detailed account of those alleged robberies or establishing precisely what Ledeau did during his encounter with police immediately before he was shot.
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The Montana Division of Criminal Investigation eventually completed its investigation and forwarded the case to the Missoula County Attorney’s Office. A coroner’s inquest concerning Ledeau’s death was subsequently conducted, although the case remained notable for the limited amount of information publicly released about the shooting compared with the large number of law-enforcement agencies involved.
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The available records identify Ledeau as Native American. No reliable public record located for this update establishes that Ledeau fired a weapon at police before officers killed him.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
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The law-enforcement officer or officers who shot and killed Ledeau were not identified in the publicly available records located for this update.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://nbcmontana.com/news/local/victim-idd-in-officer-involved-shooting-in-missoula
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https://www.kulr8.com/missoula/missoula-pd-robbery-suspect-deceased-following-officer-involved-shooting/article_7303ba23-ba47-5f75-9674-d22c1d265c15.html
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https://www.kpax.com/news/missoula-county/investigation-continues-into-fatal-missoula-shooting-involving-law-enforcement
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https://www.kpax.com/news/missoula-county/man-killed-in-officer-involved-shooting-in-missoula-identified
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https://newstalkkgvo.com/one-person-dead-in-officer-involved-shooting-in-missoula/
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https://newstalkkgvo.com/suspect-shot-by-law-enforcement-near-missoula-airport-identified/