By Matt Volz
The Associated Press
HELENA, Mont. — Police are trying to piece together what led a dog trainer to shoot and kill a state trooper along a roadside in southwestern Montana, prompting a manhunt that ended with the suspect found dead in his truck.
That's only the first of several unanswered questions surrounding the killing of Montana Highway Patrol officer David DeLaittre, 23, who was found dead of a gunshot wound in his vehicle on Wednesday afternoon.
Police later found the shooter, Errol Brent Bouldin, 56, dead in his 1999 green Ford F250 pickup truck in Broadwater County south of Townsend, which is about 35 miles north of Three Forks.
Still unknown is what led to the encounter between Bouldin and DeLaittre off Montana Highway 2 just outside of Three Forks, where the Gallatin, Jefferson and Madison rivers converge to form the Missouri River.
Gallatin County Sheriff James Cashell said police also don't know yet how Bouldin died, whether he took his own life and what weapon or weapons were used to kill DeLaittre and himself.
Cashell said more information would be released at a 2 p.m. press conference on Thursday.
