BILLINGS, Mont. - A West Virginia man who told authorities he was hitchhiking across the country and writing a memoir about kindness was injured in a seemingly random drive-by shooting near Montana’s booming Bakken oil patch.
Ray Dolin, 39, was shot in the arm as he approached a pickup Saturday evening, thinking the driver was offering him a ride, said Valley County Sheriff Glen Meier.
The shooting took place about 3 miles west of Glasgow, along rural US Highway 2, a major route into and out of the oil patch.
A 52-year-old man from Washington state, Lloyd Christopher Danielson III, was arrested about four hours later near Culbertson. Authorities said Danielson was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. They released no motive in the shooting.
Danielson was jailed on suspicion of felony assault with a weapon and driving under the influence. He did not enter a plea during an initial court appearance Monday, and City Judge Traci Harada set bail at $50,000 on the assault charge and $685 for the DUI. He was expected to make another court appearance Tuesday.
Danielson was apparently headed to Williston, N.D., looking for work tied to the oil boom, when he spotted Dolin, investigators said.
Dolin “was sitting down to have a little lunch and this guy drives up,’’ the sheriff said. “He thought he was going to give him a ride and as he approached the vehicle, the guy pulls out his weapon and shoots him. It’s as simple as that.’’
The shooting follows another random attack in which a popular 43-year-old teacher from the oil patch town of Sidney, Mont., was allegedly kidnapped and killed by two Colorado men on their way to Bakken earlier this year.
As the men await trial in the killing of teacher Sherry Arnold, the case has stoked worries that a once-quiet corner of Montana has been irreversibly altered by the oil boom. Crime rates across Western North Dakota and Eastern Montana have spiked as thousands of workers flock to a region that has become one of the top oil-producing areas of the country.
Meier said Danielson’s quick arrest by deputies in Roosevelt County, 100 miles from the shooting, shows law enforcement is keeping up with the changes.
Meier did not know if any words were exchanged between the shooter and victim before Dolin was shot. He said they did not know one another.
Dolin was being treated at Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital in Glasgow. A nurse said he was not taking calls or accepting messages.
Dolin had told sheriff’s officials that he was writing a memoir titled “Kindness in America.’’ His father, Melvin Dolin, in Julian, W. Va., declined to speak about his son’s plans.
“I’d rather you eventually get that story from him. He had some ideas about that,’’ he said.
After graduating from college in recent years, Ray Dolin started a freelance photography business called OneShot Impressions, his father said. The website for the business features a logo of the cross hairs of a rifle scope and has a statement from Dolin, citing photography and travel as “two of my greatest passions in life.’’
Dolin left West Virginia last week bound for Washington state, Melvin Dolin said. He took a bus to the edge of Montana and intended to work his way to Washington from there, the father said.
“He was on the way across the country taking pictures,’’ Dolin said, adding that his son’s travel plans had been flexible. “He was going to make up his mind as he traveled along. But he didn’t get that far.’’
Glasgow is about 120 miles west of the Montana-North Dakota border and is still dominated by agriculture.