BILLINGS - A man arrested following a shooting at a Billings park where dozens of people were gathered for youth football practices was charged Thursday in Yellowstone County District Court.
Canaan Larr Big Hair, 28, appeared for arraignment by video from the county jail and pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of assault with a weapon. His bond was set at $25,000.
The shooting at Stewart Park happened Tuesday at about 7 p.m. Police said a 32-year-old man was shot and Big Hair was arrested a short time later.
RELATED: Shooting at Billings park disrupts youth football practices
Prosecutors said in charging documents that officers arrived shortly after the shooting and found a 32-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the leg. The man, identified by the initials E.L., told officers the man who shot him was named Canaan and he described him as "either his girlfriend's baby daddy or ex-boy-boyfriend," the charging documents state.
A 9 mm bullet casing was found on the ground near the victim's location.
A witness told officers he saw a group of four men arguing on the park's south side near the baseball field. He said he heard several gunshots and later saw a man holding a gun and wearing a hooded sweatshirt with a multicolor design walk away from the scene.
Another witness described the shooter as wearing a dark hoodie with a hat.
Big Hair was arrested a short time later while walking in the area. He was wearing a hoodie with a multicolor design as well as a hat, prosecutors said in court records. Officers did not locate a firearm.
In a subsequent taped interview with police, E.L. identified Big Hair as the man who shot him and stated that he "knew Big Hair from when they were incarcerated together."
