Dean Randolph Jess, a 42-year-old White man, died on July 5, 2013 after a confrontation with law enforcement in Billings, Montana, several days after he escaped from the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. Jess had been serving a lengthy sentence for convictions in Park County that included a sex crime and failure to register as a sex offender; reports also note a prior rape conviction in Washington state and a multi-decade Montana sentence. While incarcerated he worked on the prison’s motor vehicle maintenance crew and was considered a minimum-security inmate trusted for outside work assignments.

Jess disappeared from a service call on July 1, 2013; the vehicle assigned to him was found abandoned about a mile and a half from the prison and an intensive ground and air search followed. Tip information moved the search more than 250 miles east to Billings, where deputies tracked a green Jeep believed stolen from the Deer Lodge area to a Walmart-area intersection. Deputies boxed the Jeep in and ordered Jess to exit; after a 15 to 20-minute standoff, a deputy reported seeing him reach for a handgun and Lt. Shane Skillen fired, fatally striking Jess. No deputies were injured. A coroner’s inquest heard witnesses who said Jess ignored commands and made provocative gestures; a seven-person jury quickly found the killing justified and no criminal charges were filed.

Are there witnesses or local details about the Billings standoff that could add clarity to what happened that day?