Deputy Says Sellner Aimed At Him

Lake County Deputy Sheriff Mike Dominick says his life was in peril when he shot and wounded fugitive Gordon Sellner last week near Sellner’s Swan Valley home.

Sellner’s rifle “was pointed right at me,” Dominick told the Missoulian in an interview.

Sellner’s daughter, Pam Sellner Hood, has said her father was wounded while target-shooting. The Militia of Montana claims Sellner was shot in an ambush. The militia said it will establish a defense fund for him, even though he is not a member of the group.

Dominick said a deputy who witnessed the shooting on Tuesday told him afterward Dominick and Sellner fired simultaneously.

Sellner, 57, was hit in the right shoulder and neck. Dominick said he and others ran to his aid, applying pressure to the wounds to stop the bleeding until a medical team arrived.

Sellner was released from a Missoula hospital on Thursday and jailed in Polson.

He was wanted on an attempted-murder charge in the 1992 shooting of a Missoula County deputy sheriff three years ago. Sellner lived as an open fugitive at his Swan Valley home for three years, and threatened to shoot any law enforcement officers who tried to arrest him.

“I’m not glad I had to shoot him,” said Dominick, a 38-year-old former Air Force major. “I’m glad he will recover from his injuries” and be able to get his day in court, he said.

Dominick said he was part of a three-man backup team that “took up concealed positions” in the trees off Route 83 near Sellner’s sawmill, where an undercover team was supposed to buy lumber from the man.

In the plan worked out by Sheriff Joe Geldrich, the undercover agents were to seize Sellner peacefully during the lumber buy.

He said Sellner fired toward lawmen, who were about 60 yards away.