Wolf Point parking lot killing brings 15-year sentence

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Montana said a Wolf Point man was sentenced after a 2025 shooting in the Albertsons parking lot on the Fort Peck Reservation left one man dead and another hurt.

Ethan Louis Murphy, 27, received 188 months in prison and five years of supervised release, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Mark Steger Smith. Court records showed Murphy pleaded guilty in February 2026 to second-degree murder and using a firearm during a crime of violence.

Investigators said Murphy walked up to two men in the parking lot with a handgun and shot both of them. One man died and the other was injured.

The shooting was reported at 8:41 p.m. Sept. 28, 2025, when a 911 caller said gunshots were fired in the Wolf Point Albertsons parking lot. Officers arrived and found two men on the ground, including one who had been shot in the head.

Investigators with the FBI, the Fort Peck Tribes Department of Law and Justice and the Wolf Point Police Department collected four 9 mm Luger shell casings and reviewed store surveillance. According to court documents, the video showed Murphy approach one victim with his gun out and shoot him in the head after the victim pulled out a black machete.

A witness at the scene identified the shooter.

Murphy turned himself in on Sept. 30, 2025, and officers found him in the passenger seat of a car with a pistol and ammunition that investigators later matched to the shooting.