Great Falls law enforcement asking community to lock up weapons as they combat increased juvenile gang activity

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Charges against the 13-year-old involved in the Nov. 3 shooting near the McDonald’s on 10th Avenue South have been amended to include felony counts of attempted deliberate homicide and tampering with evidence, and a misdemeanor count of assault.

The boy will turn 14 in December, according to court records.

The 12-year-old involved now faces an added misdemeanor assault charge along with the felony tampering count. He appeared in youth court on Nov. 13 from the Cascade County Juvenile Detention Center, where he was already held on a previous partner-family assault charge.

The Electric is opting not to name these juveniles, and others detailed later in this story, nor their claimed gang affiliations due to their age and to avoid granting them the notoriety they seek.

The Cascade County Attorney’s Office is also pursuing a provision of state law for a sentencing enhancement that adds one to three years to any sentence in the underlying case for gang activity in the case against the 13-year-old.

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County Attorney Josh Racki said that, to his knowledge, it’s the first time his office has ever used the gang enhancement.

It’s been considered in some jail assaults, but often defendants deny a gang affiliation Racki said.

“But these kids are proud of their affiliation,” he said.

Prosecutors must show a pattern of behavior to make their case. The amended charging documents for both juveniles involved in the Nov. 3 shooting are about 40 pages long documenting gang-related behavior going back to March.

The 13-year-old was arrested for disorderly conduct in October, and in a Juvenile Detention Center questionnaire, he claimed to be a “regular member” of a specific local gang that had about 10 members. He also has tattoos with known gang references, according to charging documents.

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The case highlighted a growing juvenile violence problem in the community that law enforcement and school officials have been warning about for the last few years, with increasing concern this year.

Since at least 2023, Great Falls Police officers have mentioned in public meetings some school safety concerns tied to off-campus gang activities.

Those conversations have largely been at the Great Falls Public Schools board work sessions on school safety with the school resource officers. The Electric is often the only member of the public or media in the room.

Those incidents have included:

Incidents related to gang activity across the community have often prompted schools to be placed into shelter in place status, typically not because the students involved are threatening the school, but as a precautionary measure.

In a Nov. 4 interview with Sgt. Katie Cunningham and Senior Police Officer Chris Brown of GFPD, they said more kids have been drawn into the gang activity, but it’s still a relatively small group of kids having an outsize impact on their workload, particularly for the school resource officers.

But, when incidents like the Nov. 3 shooting near McDonalds occur, it involves the entire detective bureau, slowing investigations into other crimes.

School Safety Measures

In response to The Electric’s reporting on the incident and that a 12 and 13-year-old had been charged, many readers asked why they weren’t in school.

Cunningham said most of those involved aren’t enrolled students.

“We don’t allow this nonsense in the building,” she said, and when they learn of a kid with any gang affiliation, they conduct a threat assessment to determine their impact to the safety of other students and work with GFPS administrators to find alternatives if possible, such as remote school or only being allowed in the building at certain times. Expulsion is also considered.

But, the kids involved with the violence are hanging out with kids from school, their siblings, girlfriends, boyfriends, etc.

“All of these kids have ties that we have to be super cautious of and keep an eye on,” Cunningham said.

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It’s challenging, she said, when they have kids in custody, but can’t get ahold of the parents, or the parents hang up on them.

In a Nov. 12 interview, County Attorney Josh Racki said that there’s no laws that make parents automatically criminally liable for their kids’ bad behavior.

For one of the juveniles involved in the recent gang activity, Racki said the child’s mom has told them in the past that she’s afraid of him and has cooperated with investigators.

Truancy laws don’t necessarily apply to the kids who aren’t allowed in school and if a student is refusing to go to school, short of physically forcing them, it can be challenging, Racki said.

Racki said his office would have to prove negligence of a parent in relation to their child’s behavior, which could be a tough case to make to a jury.

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It’s not unusual for the current batch of juvenile gang members to also have partner family member assault charges against them in relation to their parents, or to have parents in jail.

The Nov. 3 incident sent schools into shelter in place. For Great Falls High School, Paris Gibson Education Center and Longfellow Elementary School it was for their proximity to the threat.

For East Middle and Lewis and Clark Elementary schools, it was because they knew some in the group live in that area, and Cunningham said they didn’t know if they’d be headed that way.

In October, GFPD executed several search warrants in relation to stolen guns and the juvenile gang activity.

Cunningham said that out of an abundance of caution, she put several schools in shelter-in-place status while those unannounced warrants were being served with the High Risk Unit, a joint operation between GFPD and the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office.

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She said that highlights the partnership between the school resources officers and the school district.

Cunningham said that they understand parents’ frustration with shelters in place and then being released with care, but they “shouldn’t be frustrated at the system in place to keep the innocents safe. They should be frustrated at the few wreaking havoc. There’s a reason we have these shelters in place, and they work.”

Cunningham said they released students from school with care on Nov. 3 because they didn’t know where all the involved kids were at that time, and while they didn’t anticipate them threatening a school, they were worried what might come of an encounter.

By the end of the night, GFPD had everyone involved the McDonald’s area shooting in custody, which was a lot of work, Cunningham said.

One of the juveniles involved in the Nov. 3 incident lives in the Phoenix Apartments, where Cunningham said, “a lot of people are scared of these kids” and don’t want to get involved.

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Brown, who has become GFPD’s defacto gang expert and is part of the Directed Enforcement Team, said the groups have a “culture of retaliation against people that snitch,” and they see it playing out on social media with the potential to spill over into real life.

What’s causing the behavior is complex, Brown said, and they do their best to intervene, tracking stolen guns to prevent further violence.

Cunningham and Brown said it’s imperative for locals to be responsible gun owners, locking up their weapons and having serial numbers handy to help with tracking.ing

A new law went into effect Oct. 1, Cunningham said, making it a felony to possess stolen guns, which will apply to juveniles.

There are gaps in state laws, Cunningham said, since they aren’t dealing with kids out hunting, instead they’re dealing with kids walking around with pistols in their waistbands, committing violence.

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A common trend with the local juvenile gangs is that they’re car hopping, going through neighborhoods, trying door handles and appear to be specifically targeting military gear and firearms since other valuables have been left behind.

There’s sometimes a delay in reports of stolen weapons since owners may not realize it and in some cases, officers have seized a weapon and later receipt a theft report.

This group of kids is “very bold,” Cunningham said.

Brown asks the community to help by locking their doors, not leaving weapons in vehicles, calling in suspicious behavior and reporting graffiti popping up as “that’s a way I check the temperature.”

While much of the juvenile gang activity is directed at their rival gangs, their activity has happened in parking lots of apartment buildings and large commercial areas frequented by the public, “where innocent people could be struck,” Cunningham said.

A few years ago, a drive-by shooting at an east-end apartment building sent a stray bullet into a child’s bedroom, striking his bedpost. The child was not in the room at the time, they said.

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“The man-hours that go into these investigations is indescribable,” Cunningham said.

Taxpayer resources going into investigating these cases means other cases, like elder abuse, fraud and theft, are being pushed.

“The community should be outraged,” Cunningham said.

Juvenile Justice System

The juvenile criminal justice system is similar to the adult process, but differs in key ways and “really takes rehabilitation into account,” Racki said.

Judges often choose to release juveniles rather than keep them in the Cascade County Juvenile Detention Center, Racki said. Their release comes with instructions to the parents or guardians on how to follow their orders.

The 13-year-old in the Nov. 3 shooting had previous criminal cases this year, including misdemeanor theft, minor in possession of alcohol, disorderly conduct and obstructing law enforcement, according to the county attorney’s office.

The 12-year-old charged in the Nov. 3 shooting appeared in court on Nov. 13, and staff from the group home where he’d been staying were uncomfortable with him coming back because of his behavior.

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One of the juveniles involved in the local gang activity appeared in court on Nov. 13, when the 16-year-old was sentenced to Pine Hills, the Montana Department of Corrections juvenile facility, until he’s 18.

He was the juvenile that punched the victim in the head in McDonald’s on Nov. 3, leading to the larger altercation and eventual shooting, according to court documents, and was in court for a revocation hearing since he’d committed new offenses while on juvenile probation. He’d been sentenced in June in an earlier case and was charged again less than a month later, the prosecutor on the case said.

He was involved in gang and gun activity with “escalating behaviors” the prosecutor said and at that point, they believed a commitment to Pine Hills was the best way to keep the community safe.

During the hearing, District Court Judge Elizabeth Best said that youth court is “intended to get kids back on their feet and not brand you as a criminal for the rest of your life. I’m seeing shame on your part. You’ve got a great chance to turn things around. I believe in you.”

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The sentenced 16-year-old had a stolen firearm in March that his 9-year-old brother got ahold of pointed at other juveniles during an altercation over a stolen bicycle. The pistol had been stolen from a parked vehicle earlier that month, according to charging documents.

The 16-year-old, plus the two juveniles charged in the Nov. 3 shooting and another, posted photos on social media of themselves posing with a stolen weapon earlier this year.

They are also shown in a photo with a stolen weapon in the parking area near Albaro Picotte’s residence. Picotte used the weapon to threaten and assault his ex-girlfriend in July and was charged with multiple crimes.

While Picotte was in jail, he called the sentenced 16-year-old and the 12-year-old charged in the Nov. 3, recruiting them to vandalize his ex-girlfriend’s vehicle in July.

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In the charging documents, law enforcement list at least 18 weapons that have been reported stolen and used in juvenile criminal behavior. Some of the weapons have been found on their persons or otherwise recovered, but some have not.

Another juvenile who claims affiliation with those involved in the Nov. 3 shooting has two pending criminal cases this year, with two charges of assault with a weapon, criminal mischief and intimidation.

A juvenile offender who claims an association with a  rival gang has 12 youth court cases, nine of which remain open, and the majority of which are violent felonies and misdemeanors. He’s set to appear before Judge Kutzman on Nov. 25 and prosecutors are asking that he be sent to Pine Hills.

School prevention efforts

The Great Falls Public Schools board discussed school safety during an Oct. 29 work session.

Lance Boyd and Jackie Mainwaring, assistant superintendents, said that they’ve changed how they’re tracking some incidents, including student-to-student threats.

Mainwaring said that when a threat is made, the administration begins the threat assessment process, which includes interviews with witnesses, the student who made the threats and their families, potential victims and their families.

They review the student files and consider all pertinent information.

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Mainwaring said the team meets to determine if the student is on a violent path and if they pose a risk to their school.

Those assessments are intense and can take more than a week with four or five people each spending about 10 hours on the review at the high school level, Mainwaring and Superintendent Heather Hoyer said.

Boyd said district administrators have spent a lot of time working with school principals on the process of threat assessments and documenting them so everyone is on the same page, knowing safety plans and resources for interventions.

They’re also working with community partners, law enforcement, the JDC and juvenile probation officers, as well as establishing the ReStart program to offer pathways to graduation.

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Giving students an opportunity for a fresh start is important, but sometimes schools must escalate the situation to administrative hearings and the county safety team.

Boyd said they’d also discussed the issues with local judges this year.

To excel in the classroom, students have to feel safe in school, Boyd said, and there are things that happen in the community that affect safety even when it’s not directly occurring in school buildings.

Boyd said that for the first quarter of the school year, 83 percent of issues had been repeat offenders, though some students have embraced alternative opportunities and are keeping up with their schoolwork.

GFPS and GFPD have partnered since 1995 with the school resource officer program.

Hoyer said that she couldn’t imagine doing the job as a high school principal without the SROs.

During the Oct. 29 meeting, Cunningham said “our work is heavy and it’s difficult, but a lot is talking with kids and building relationships.”