Internet Technician Solves Warning Shot Mystery

An incident in Missoula, Montana, leads to the arrest of one woman and many people without internet service.

Between the Concealed Carry Podcast and the content we publish on the site, we’ve gone on the record to denounce firing warning shots as dangerous, unnecessary, and potentially criminal too many times to count. However, I think we’ve beat that horse to death and don’t wish to do it here; instead, I’ll provide some links at the end of this post.

Now back to Missoula, Montana —

According to a local news organization KGVO, shortly after 10:00 PM, a man called police to report he heard a gunshot from a couple of trailers down from him.

KGVO photo

Missoula Police responded and contacted a man who was leaving the area as they arrived. According to the man, his brother was arguing with his fiance, later identified as Giffin. The man said Giffin fired a single shot into the air to get them to stop arguing.

According to police, Giffin’s fiance confirmed that he and Giffin had been arguing.  Police located Giffin inside the trailer, and according to reports, she told them she heard arguing, but she was asleep. Although not stated, it’s presumed Giffin denied firing a gun, as police cleared the call because of conflicting statements and no physical evidence of a crime.

But that’s not where the story ends.

The following day, the original reporting party notified his internet company that he had lost service the night before. A technician came out to troubleshoot the issue with the man’s internet. He noticed the cause of the outage was a severed fiber-optic cable. Damage appeared to be caused by a bullet.

The man called the police again and updated them on the damage believed to be caused by a bullet.

Police came out and investigated the scene and found an evident hole in the line, approximately 20 yards from the trailer where police found Giffin the previous night.

Police obtained a warrant to search Giffin’s trailer for a firearm. A search of Giffin’s room inside the trailer produced a loaded 9mm handgun located in a laundry basket.

According to the report, several juveniles inside the trailer had access to the loaded, unsecured handgun. One of the juveniles also told police that they saw Giffin with the handgun and saw her hide it in the bedroom on the night of the shooting.

A quick-access safe is a must-have item.

Police believe that on the night in question, Giffin’s fiance and his brother were fighting. Giffin fired the gun into the air with the motivation to stop the fight.

According to KGVO, Giffin denied to police that she owned or possessed a firearm, adding that she wasn’t allowed to have one.

Subsequently, police arrested Giffin for Criminal Mischief and disorderly conduct.

But wait, there’s more–

The bullet, supposedly fired by Giffin, severed several wires, which interrupted internet and communications to a Verizon cell tower affecting several customers. It is estimated to cost $10,000 to repair the damage. Who knows if Spectrum, the internet company, will attempt to come after Giffin for the cost of repairs.

It is safe to say Giffin made error after error in her decisions the night of the shooting and the following day. Some of the more obvious ones include firing a gun into the air with no regard for safety, providing juveniles access to a loaded handgun, and lying to police.

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