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DETAILS OF THE fatal encounter between Harper and Dan Fredenberg were revealed Tuesday in a report Corrigan sent to Kalispell Police Chief Roger Nasset and two detectives.

What follows is the summary of Corrigan’s narrative:

On the day of the shooting, Heather was visiting Harper to help him clean and get ready to move out of state. When she received a call from Dan asking where she was and if she was with Harper, she refused to answer. At the time, Dan was driving around looking for her.

At roughly 8 p.m., Heather and Harper went for a ride in her truck so he could help figure out what was wrong with it. Heather then noticed Dan was following them and she drove back to Harper’s 244 Empire Loop home.

Heather let Harper out of her truck and told him to go inside, close his garage door and not answer the front door if Dan came up. As she began to leave, she noticed Dan get out of his vehicle and walk into the garage toward Harper, “walking up to him fast, cussing at him.”

Before Dan made it inside the garage, Harper had retrieved his pistol from his bedroom and returned to the laundry room doorway, which opened into the garage.

When Dan approached Harper, he pointed at him and said “you better not point that gun at me,” Harper said. Harper said he pointed the gun at Dan and told him to stop, but he did not, at which point Harper shot Dan in the abdomen.

Dan then bent over, said “you shot me,” and continued toward him. Harper then shot Dan two more times, at which point Dan collapsed at the foot of the stairs, roughly two feet away from him. The first shot caused the wound that killed Dan, while the second shot struck him in the left shoulder and the third grazed the right side of his face.

Harper and Heather both told police that Dan was approaching Harper aggressively at the time of the shooting, and a neighbor also told police that she heard Harper say repeatedly that “he was coming at me.”

Harper said he did not know what Dan was capable of or what he was going to do, but believed Dan would have tried to hit him. Harper did not know if Dan had a weapon, but knew he was mad at him. He said he was “scared for his life” and that he did not want to shoot Dan.

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/article_8064190a-123e-11e2-8fda-0019bb2963f4.html