Two-Fer In Montana Violence Spree - To Golf or To Rake Leaves?

Bozeman man being held in jail for assault with golf club

November 2, 2010

A Bozeman man was struck in the head by a golf club wielding assailant outside a Bozeman bar early Monday morning. The golfer is in the Gallatin County jail on $50,000 bond.

The golfer, 21, was charged with assault with a weapon, obstructing a police officer and resisting arrest.

Bozeman Police Sgt. Travis Munter saw three men fighting in a back alley behind the Bozeman Hotel at the corner of Rouse Avenue and Main Street just before 2 a.m.
When the officer intervened, two of the men began shouting that the third man had hit their friend in the head with a golf club. Multiple witnesses relayed a similar story, Munter wrote in his affidavit.

Munter said the golfer then shoved the officer and ran as he attempted to arrest him. The officer caught up with him a couple of blocks away.

The victim, who was taken to Bozeman Deaconess Hospital, said he didn't remember being struck but only waking up in the ambulance. The man was treated and released. No one knows who he was.


Another Bozeman man held for assault with a yard rake

November 2, 2010

In an unrelated occurrence, another Bozeman man, 24, is in jail after he attacked two neighbors with a rake on a second-floor apartment's deck in Bozeman last Saturday.

Phillip George Hollowell was charged with assault with a weapon after his neighbors and he got into an argument around 4:30 a.m. at their apartment building at 1322 S. Willson Ave., police said. No photo of the man was available but you can substitute the above photo whilst imagining the man has a rake instead of a golf club and get the general picture.

One of the victims said Hollowell became agitated because he had had some property stolen and began calling her "obscene names." She threw an empty beer can at the man, who was at ground level, but it did not hit him.

The suspect flew into a rage and grabbed a rake and ran up the stairs and began "jabbing it into her chest," the victim told police.

The male victim was struck in the face with the metal end of the rake as he tried to intervene. He sustained two cuts near his nose and eye, requiring 10 stitches.

Hollowell told police he "threw a rake up onto the deck towards both victims" and the rake "might have hit someone." His story was not very believable.

So Hollowell was jailed and held on $40,000 bond.