Woods charged in Jan. 5 incident on east side of Great Falls
Brenda Woods, 49, was charged with felony counts of criminal endangerment and assault with a weapon, and a misdemeanor count of obstructing a peace officer, following a large police response to the Highwoods mobile home park on the eastside of Great Falls on Jan. 5.
A Great Falls Police officer was dispatched to 4180 Highwood Drive at 8:24 a.m. Jan. 5 for a report of shots fired and dispatch advised that a female was screaming and shooting at two males. A second caller reported a female shooting and honking a horn, according to charging documents.
Arriving on scene, the GFPD officer spoke with one of the callers, who lives next door, and told the officer that she woke up to Woods driving around the neighborhood honking her horn.
Woods pulled into her driveway, laying on her car horn, the witness said, and asked Woods “what’s your problem” as she existed her car, according to charging documents.
Woods allegedly walked toward her house, telling the witness to come closer and turned away for a moment, turning back toward the witness with a handgun that she began firing, according to court documents.
The officer spoke with another caller who lives next door to Woods who said she woke up around 8 a.m. and heard a disturbance outside shortly afterward. She said she looked out the window and saw two males running away from Woods’ residence and her holding a gun and firing into the air, according to court documents.
During the incident, the GFPD officer told Woods to exit her house with her hands up, open and empty, saying she was under arrest. Woods exited the back door several times, out of sight of the officer who initially responded.
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Officers on the back perimeter told Woods to come out, but she went back inside and slammed the door, according to court documents.
Eventually, Woods exited her house and was placed into custody without further incident by 9:20 a.m. and was booked into the Cascade County Adult Detention Center around 10 a.m.
The Cascade County Attorney’s Office requested a $100,000 bond as Woods’ “use of a firearm in a reckless and dangerous manner presents a danger to all of the persons in the immediate area as she fired indiscriminately into the air where there is no knowing where those bullets finally landed as well as a danger to the individuals she chased with the firearm and the resident who feared she was being lured closer to be shot,” according to charging documents.