Social media post sends Bird to jail

Montana Crimestoppers are thanking Lake County Law enforcement this week for arresting one of its most wanted criminals.

Jeremiah Winter Hawk Bird, 29, formerly of Charlo, was arrested Aug. 25, one day after Montana Crimestoppers listed a “Can You Find Me” alert on its Facebook page.

Bird, who saw himself listed on the Crimestoppers’ Facebook page called Tribal Law and Order officials to turn himself in, said Lake County Sheriff Don Bell.

Bird wanted to rectify his problem with the court, Bell said. 

Charged with felony probation violation and an active warrant, Bird appeared before 20th District Court Judge Deborah Kim Christopher Thursday and was re-processed back into the judicial system and given five years in the Department of Corrections for his crimes.

On July 17, Bird appeared before a Fourth District Missoula County judge to answer charges of probation violation and was ordered to turn himself into Lake County Sheriff deputies within one week.

Bird, however, failed to turn himself over to Lake County officials and a $100,000 warrant was issued for his arrest.

Bird’s recent trouble began in 2011.

Lake County District Court records show that Bird was sentenced to four years in prison with three days credit in jail on Oct. 12, 2011, when he was sentenced for one count of felony assault of a peace officer. 

As part of the sentencing, Bird’s jail time was immediately deferred, which means he would not serve his time behind institution bars if he followed the conditions of his probation, court records said.

His conviction earned Bird a spot on the Montana’s Sexual and Violent Offenders list, records said.

In January of 2011, Lake County emergency dispatchers received a call about a man at a Rocky Butte Road home who cut his wrists and fled, Lake County Court documents said.

When Bird returned to the caller’s location, he found himself locked out of the home and face-to-face with Lake County Sheriff’s deputy and Tribal Law officers who arrived to intervene. 

Unwilling to heed demands of responding deputies who commanded Bird to put down the metal fence post he was swinging in the air, Bird advanced toward the officers, the records said.

Responders, who first raised their “sidearms” when commanding Bird to stop, were forced to continued their confrontation with the advancing man when a Tribal Law and Order officer drew his taser and warned Bird to stop once more. 

Winter Hawk Bird refused, the documents said.

That’s when the Tribal officer’s taser misfired.

The Tribal officer drew his service weapon and Bird turned and fled the scene, records said.

The suspect was later arrested without incident.

During the following few years, the Montana probation department kept watch on the man who then lived in Charlo, records said.

Through the next several years, probation officers filed multiple complaints that Bird violated his probation claiming that Bird traveled out of state on multiple occasions, pleaded guilty to a Flathead County charge of harassing his former wife and was found in possession of a “sawed off shotgun,” records said.

Bird was first accused of alleged involvement in a Missoula area drive-by-shooting and attempted deliberate homicide, but charges were later dropped.