UPDATE: Pablo shooting suspect arrested

Pablo shooting suspect Ashley Rae Hewankorn, 28, was arrested Wednesday in Glacier County.

Hewankorn will be charged with felony assault with a weapon, according to a press release issued by the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

She was caught in Glacier County after authorities recieved a tip on Wednesday that she was hitchhiking to Browning. She was caught within an hour by Glacier County Sheriff's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Megan Strickland of the Daily Inter Lake contributed to this story.

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Law enforcement officials across the county are looking for Ashley Rae Hewankorn, the woman they believe shot another woman in Pablo Dec. 14.

Don Bell, Lake County Sheriff said that Hewankorn is 5’5” tall, weighs 150 pounds, has brown hair, brown eyes and is Native American according to a Lake County Sheriff’s Department press release.

Hewankorn has outstanding warrants in Lake County as well as being the shooting suspect. Her victim is recovering in the hospital.

Authorities believe Hewankorn shot another woman at a private address Dec. 14. Hewankorn also has a current case working through the Lake County Court system related to check fraud.

A shooting at a private home in Pablo at about 1 p.m. today wounded one woman and forced the lockdown of Pablo Elementary School.

The shot woman was transported to an area hospital for care, Don Bell, Lake County Sheriff said.

A medical airlift was performed from St. Luke’s Community Hospital shortly after the woman was transported, but it is unclear if the woman was airlifted from St. Luke’s Community Hospital.

Witnesses said that a blue-grey sedan with a missing passenger’s side window and missing front grill is believed to have fled from the scene.

Shortly after arriving on scene, several law enforcement agencies began a search for the suspect vehicle, which was later found at another private home in Pablo.

Bell said that three people are wanted in connection to the shooting incident, though one appears to be only a witness.

Officers from the Montana Highway Patrol, Tribal Law and Order, Polson Police Department and Lake County Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene.

Officials are still searching for the three suspects.

If anyone has information regarding this incident, they are asked to call the Lake County Sheriff’s Department at 406-883-7201.

Ashley Rae Hewankorn was arraigned on four counts of felony burglary Sept. 9, seven months after the Lake County Prosecuting Attorney’s office filed formal paperwork in her case and nearly two years after the alleged crime occurred, according to a Lake County Court affidavit.

Hewankorn, whose jury trial is set for Feb. 16, 2016, spend much of those seven months, however, interacting with law enforcement in other ways.

According to Lake County Court records, Hewankorn was arrested by Tribal police in February on undisclosed and unrelated charges.

In March she was seen attempting to pass a bad check at a Ronan business, court records said. Hewankorn’s plan was thwarted, however, after the clerk recognized Hewankorn and knew the check she was trying to pass was fraudulent.

The bogus checkbook was reported stolen from a local residence when a perpetrator broke into the house through a back window, records said.

Records show that Hewankorn was seen on Walmart and Muralts surveillance cameras attempting to pass checks from the same checkbook.

The Lake County Prosecuting Attorney’s office filed another, separate case for one count of felony burglary and two counts of felony forgery against Hewankorn in June.

Hewankorn’s trouble multiplied when she failed to appear for her required April arraignment on the 2013 charges. That earned Hewankorn a May arrest warrant, the records said.

While avoiding her September 2013 arrest arraignment, the Lake County Prosecuting attorney’s office filed a third set of paperwork. This time, the affidavit claimed that Hewankorn was in possession of methamphetamines during a Tribal warrant arrest in Polson in December 2014.

Hewankorn’s oldest accusations began on Sept. 7, 2013 after an anonymous tipster called the Crimestoppers hotline with information related to a recent burglary, according to a Lake County Court affidavit.

The informant told police that Hewankorn could be found at Pablo Foods grocery store with stolen merchandise in her car.

Responding law enforcement officers arrived on scene and found Hewankorn’s car in the parking lot, and Hewankorn fleeing from the back door, the affidavit said.

When investigators searched Hewankorn’s vehicle, they found several rifles and another woman’s checkbook in her car, the records said.

While being questioned by police, Hewankorn took responsibility for four 2013 burglaries that netted her two more checkbooks, on of which came from a relative, the records said.  

Hewankorn was scheduled for an omnibus hearing Nov. 25, 2015. She is currently living at the Lake County jail.