by William Skink

A fight occurred in Missoula on August 20th and the result is a 37 year old man is dead. For some reason the dead man has not yet been identified over ten days later, though authorities apparently know enough to say he’s from Missoula:

Missoula police are investigating the death of a 37-year-old man after a disturbance behind Stockman’s Bar on Aug. 20.

Authorities had not identified the man as of Monday, other than as a resident of Missoula. Missoula Police Sgt. Travis Welsh confirmed on Monday the investigation is ongoing, calling the matter a “death investigation,” while stopping short of calling the man’s death a homicide at this time.

“There was a disturbance involved, and we have received some conflicting information, so we are trying to sort through that,” Welsh said.

It will be interesting to see how this “death investigation” plays out, considering how eager the County Attorney’s office has been recently to label murders as self defense cases, like the alleged strangulation death of Sean Stevenson and the stabbing death of Ben Mousso.

I wonder if geography could be an incentive to take this death more seriously than, say, one that happens inside a homeless shelter. Stockman’s Bar is a popular bar for University athletes, Jon Tester’s office is across the street, and Nick Checota’s two venues–the Top Hat and the Wilma–are on either side.

For a visual, the image below is the backside of Stockman’s, and the big building crowding the right of the frame is the Wilma.

This whole area is targeted by the downtown masterplan for scaled-up development. Will violence help or hurt investor interest?