UPDATE - 12:21 p.m.: Bail has been set for $500,000 for Sebastian Walter Olivares-Coster, 17, accused of deliberate homicide in Wednesday night's shooting death of Cory Adam Andrewski, 16.
Lewis and Clark County Attorney Leo Gallagher said the amount was appropriate, given the nature of the crime.
``This is one of the most brutal homicide scenarios imaginable,'' Gallagher told Judge Jeffrey Sherlock. ``In cold-blooded fashion, he went out and killed one person and tried to kill two others.''
Oliveras-Coster, clad in a blue T-shirt and black pants, looked distraught yet calm during the Thursday morning arraignment. He said nothing during the proceedings, other than to acknowledge that he understood his rights. Afterward, he was taken to the youth detention facility in Great Falls.
According to an affidavit by Deputy County Attorney Melissa Broch, a citizen who lives on Division Street in Helena reported that as she was walking north on Division at 9:10 p.m. Wednesday she heard five gun shots and saw one male shoot another male.
``The shot male fell to the ground face forward. The fallen male lay perfectly still as if he was dead,'' Broch wrote in the affidavit. ``Seconds later, two more men appeared, running down the hill past the first victim headed toward Rodney Street. The shooter fired one shot that brought one of the running men to his knees.
`The man faced the shooter and said `Please, just leave me alone.' The shooter then shot the second man twice more at close range from a standing position.''
The witness ran to her house and called 9-1-1 and officers were at the scene by 9:24 p.m. They found two live gunshot victims identified in the affidavit as 15-year-old ``K.L.'' and 16-year-old ``J.W.'' Andrewski, who appears to have been the first man shot, seems to have died from a gunshot wound to his left side in addition to a possible head wound.
The wounded men were taken to St. Peter's Hospital and interviewed by detectives. K.L. allegedly told officers he was dating a 15-year-old girl identified as ``B.B.'' who also was dating another boy identified as ``T.W.'', and the two males had sent each other text messages throughout Wednesday arguing over the girl.
On Wednesday night, B.B. ran into the other boy and used his telephone to call K.L., who tried to get the boy to meet him at the tunnel near Anchor Park for a fight. Instead, T.W. went to a party in a garage on 11th Avenue, where he met up with Olivares-Coster. T.W. said K.L. had physically and verbally abused the girl, and Oliveras-Coster took T.W.'s phone and began texting K.L. threatening messages, which culminated in an agreement for the two to meet at Anchor Park to fight. K.L. thought it was T.W. who was sending the messages, according to the affidavit.
Oliveras-Coster met the three boys at Anchor Park, and told them to follow him up the hill, where they would meet T.W. for the fight.
``When the trio arrived near the Hale Reservoir, Olivares-Coster stated `I am not going to fight fair.' Olivares-Coster then shot Andrewski in the head,'' Broch wrote in the affidavit. ``Olivares-Coster then shot K.L. six times in the knee, the left arm, the right arm, once in each shoulder and once in the buttocks ...
``Olivares-Coster also shot J.W. once in the head and twice in the chest.''
The shooting spawned a night-long manhunt in Lewis and Clark and Jefferson County, and included a Homeland Security helicopter with night vision and infrared capabilities, according the Helena Police Chief Troy McGee. They tracked him to a residence where they thought he lived on North Rodney Street, and arrested Olivares-Coster without incident about 8:30 a.m. as he got into a vehicle.
McGee said he didn't have a motive for the shooting.
``We are still putting together the pieces at this time,'' he said.
Officials declined to release the type of gun involved in the shooting, other than to say it was a handgun.
Olivares-Coster, and some of the others involved, were students at Helena High School. Along with deliberate homicide, he's facing two charges of attempted deliberate homicide, which carry penalties of up to life in prison and no less than 10 years behind bars if convicted.
A hearing is slated for 9 a.m. June 18 to decide whether further proceedings will be held in district court or youth court.
UPDATE - 9:44 a.m.: Sebastian Walter Olivares-Coster, 17, has been arrested on a charge of deliberate homicide in the shooting death of Cory Adam Andrewski, 16.
According to an affidavit by Deputy County Attorney Melissa Broch, a citizen who lives on Division Street in Helena reported that as she was walking north on Division at 9:10 p.m. she heard five gun shots and saw one male shoot another male.
“The shot male fell to the ground face forward. The fallen male lay perfectly still as if he was dead,” Broch wrote in the affidavit. “Seconds later, two more men appeared, running down the hill past the first victim headed toward Rodney Street. The shooter fired one shot that brought one of the running men to his knees.
"The man faced the shooter and said ‘Please, just leave me alone.’ The shooter then shot the second man twice more at close range from a standing position.”
