A teenager was arrested for allegedly brandishing a semi-automatic rifle at a neighbor who confronted him for speeding along a residential street in Bozeman on Sunday. Police say the teen told them that he wanted to “take matters into his own hands.”
Landen Reichert, 19, was charged with assault with a weapon and issued a $5,000 bail by Judge Bryan Adams at the Gallatin County Justice Court on Monday. Reichert told officers he had retreated to his home and came back out with the rifle to defend himself.
On May 12, at around 6 p.m., officers with the Bozeman Police Department responded to a disturbance at 2558 Milkhouse Ave.
A wife and husband told officers that after a silver sedan sped down their street, the male “gestured at it to express his frustration” and she yelled at it to slow down. At some point — the woman told police — Reichert revved his engine, drove to his house, got out and threw his hands in the air, according to an affidavit.
Her husband then “yelled at Reichert to slow down and told Reichert he wanted to talk to him,” court documents said. Reichert allegedly replied, “Hey, I’ll go get my rifle and I’ll just shoot your a—,” the woman told police.
After the man walked over to where Reichert had parked and confronted him about the speeding, Reichert is said to have gone inside his home and reemerged with the semi-automatic rifle.
The woman told officers she was “scared to death! I thought he was going to shoot my husband,” according to court documents, and both corroborated similar events. The man “indicated that the muzzle remained pointed at the ground and (Reichert) stated he had the right to defend himself.”
When BPD arrived at the scene, they found Reichert standing on his front porch, no longer holding the rifle. The officers pointed their rifles at Reichert and placed him into handcuffs without incident.
During an interview, court documents said Reichert “detailed a very similar sequence of events” as the reporting wife and her husband and that “he admitted to me that he had been speeding on Ferguson and that once confronted by his parked vehicle he had retreated into his residence and retrieved his rifle.”
Reichert told officers he did so to defend himself and that the man had “never approached his door but stayed on the public sidewalk outside.”
When officers asked Reichert why he didn’t call the police and lock his door, “he stated to me that he does not trust law enforcement and wished to take matters into his own hands,” court documents said.
Officers later retrieved the rifle from Reichert’s couch and charged him with assault with a weapon “by brandishing a firearm directly following a confrontation that he chose to escalate.”
On Monday at Justice Court, Judge Adams ordered Reichert to take a different route home so as not to drive by the involved party’s house and not to leave the state without permission or to possess firearms.
A prosecutor from the Gallatin County Attorney’s office suggested the $5,000 bail amount and clarified that Reichert has no previous criminal or traffic history and is considered low risk.
“I’m going to be setting bail in the amount of $5,000 as requested given the nature of the offense and the response I see listed in the affidavit,” Judge Adams said. “These are serious offenses and common sense must prevail.”
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