In the early morning of June 9, 2025, 22-year-old Darien Donald Bickel was shot and killed outside an apartment at the Phoenix Apartments on 10th Avenue South in Great Falls. Police first responded to calls about banging on a door around 3:42 a.m., left after finding nothing, then returned after further disturbance calls and a report that two people had been shot. Officers found Bickel unresponsive with a fatal gunshot wound; a second victim, Braden Walker, suffered a shoulder wound and was treated and released from Benefis Health System.

Investigators focused on a nearby unit after a prolonged SWAT response and detained several people. Witnesses, including Bickel’s girlfriend who was present, told police they believed 20-year-old Charlotte Mary Andrade was the shooter; Andrade later told investigators she fired three shots from an upstairs window, and a gun was recovered hidden under a couch. On June 9 Andrade was arrested and charged with deliberate homicide in Bickel’s death and attempted deliberate homicide in Walker’s shooting, with bond set at $1 million. Andrade had faced an unrelated 2023 homicide charge and was acquitted in 2024.

Does anyone have information about Bickel, the Phoenix Apartments, or the events that morning that could help clarify what happened?