BILLINGS - Describing him as an "extreme threat to the community," a Yellowstone County District Court judge set bond at $1.5 million Tuesday for a teenager charged with two counts of attempted murder.
Ashtin Zant Glen, 18, pleaded not guilty Tuesday at an arraignment hearing where he appeared by video from the county jail. Glen, who prosecutors said has a violent criminal history, was also charged with felony vehicle theft.
Judge Thomas Pardy set the high bond amount after prosecutors said the teen has prior felony convictions for assault and assault with a weapon and is under investigation for other crimes, including a car theft involving a firearm and making a death threat against a prior victim.
Glen and another teen, 19-year-old Devon James Isaacson, were arrested late Saturday after law enforcement responded to a shooting in Lockwood. Charging documents filed against Glen describe a violent encounter between the teenager and the victim in which shots were exchanged, followed by more gunfire directed at a Yellowstone County sheriff's deputy during a high-speed pursuit that ended in a crash and Glen's arrest in Billings.
The shooting in Lockwood was reported at about 9:40 p.m. when authorities said Glen and Isaacson were "car hopping" on Canary Avenue when a resident saw the two teens and confronted them outside a residence. Isaacson was attempting to break into vehicles as Glen drove nearby in a stolen car, prosecutors said.
The victim, identified by family as 25-year-old Brassar McCabe, confronted the teens and was shot three times by Glen, including twice in the chest and once in the arm. Isaacson fled on foot, prosecutors said, and Glen sped away as McCabe returned the gunfire, striking the car five times and leaving Glen with a graze wound on his left forearm, according to court records.
McCabe's family said Monday he remained hospitalized with serious gunshot wounds.
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Isaacson was arrested near the shooting scene, while Glen was spotted in the stolen car traveling toward Billings by a sheriff's deputy. The deputy pursued the car into Billings and the chase was eventually joined by both Billings police officers and state patrol troopers.
During the chase, prosecutors said the deputy reported that the fleeing driver was shooting at her patrol car. Early in the pursuit the driver left the road and ran over a concrete median causing the left front tire to blow out.
The chase ended when the fleeing vehicle crashed into a parked car near Terry Avenue and 7th Street West and the driver fled on foot. Glen was arrested a short time later a few blocks away.
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