BILLINGS, Mont. — Prosecutors are seeking to increase bail to $100,000 on a man being held in the weekend shooting of a hitchhiker outside of Glasgow.
Lloyd Christopher Danielson III, 52, was due in Valley County Justice Court on Wednesday, on charges of felony assault with a weapon.
The Tumwater, Wash., resident is accused of shooting Ray Dolin, 39, of Julian, W. Va., in the arm as the hitchhiker waited along U.S. 2 on Saturday near Glasgow.
Danielson was initially held on $50,000 bail after his arrest in Roosevelt County. County Attorney Nicholas Murnion said a higher bail is warranted because of the violent nature of the offense and because Danielson is from out of state.
Dolin, a freelance photographer, was hitchhiking through Montana on his way to Washington state. Authorities say he was shot as he approached Danielson’s pickup thinking Danielson was going to give him a ride.
Highway 2 is a major route into and out of the booming Bakken oil fields of eastern Montana and western North Dakota. Danielson’s brother said he had left Washington state to seek work related to the drilling.
Malta resident Sherry Salveson told The Associated Press that she was driving east on the highway Saturday evening when her 24-year-old daughter spotted Dolin on the side of the road, waving his jacket and trying to get someone to stop.
Salveson said she hesitated at first, then turned around at her daughter’s assistance and quickly ascertained that Dolin was in serious trouble. While her daughter called 911, Salveson found a bandage in a small first-aid kit Dolin was carrying and applied pressure to the wound until emergency workers arrived.
“We’ve heard so many different stories about the crime rates escalating since the oil wells and stuff have been coming. You are really leery. But we went back and were glad we did,” Salveson said.
Dolin later told authorities and Salveson that he was hitchhiking to collect material for a memoir on kindness in America.
“He wanted to see how people would treat him and how he would react. He said it was pretty ironic that he got shot,” Salveson said. “But I said when you look at it from a different angle, you met somebody different and did get helped and survived it.”
Dolin was expected to fully recover.
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