BILLINGS — The conflict between 57-year-old Mary White Crane and her neighbor, which he called "terrorizing," that later led to a 14-hour police standoff on Birch Lane in Billings Heights started well before Saturday.
White Crane's neighbor, who asked to be identified only as Skyler for safety reasons, said that they had been having problems with White Crane for a few months. Before that, Skyler thought they were friends.
“It was just like a switch flipped in her head, and you know, she’s accusing me of hacking into her Wi-Fi and camera systems, and that’s where it all kicked off,” he said.
On Friday evening around 5:15, when Skyler was leaving for work, he said White Crane chased his vehicle with her own for blocks and had him "boxed in" in an alley.
“And she was telling me to call the police and at the time my phone was dead sadly, so I had to pretend. But when I did that, she thankfully drove away and left me alone,” he said.
When he returned from work Friday night, the trouble continued. Skyler said White Crane started banging a sheet of plywood against their trailer. So, he called the non-emergency police number. After a few hours, police arrived at the home.
“And when we were speaking to the officer here at the front door, Mary used her pellet rifle and shot our living room window out,” Skyler said. “It was terrifying because we didn’t know, you know, if the next shot was going to be from her pellet rifle or her shotgun or what.”
Skyler said White Crane shot another window out while police were there, but he said that because White Crane would not answer her door, the police left.
“I want to say four in the morning, they finally leave, and nothing was done, but couldn’t do much because she wouldn’t come to the door,” he said.
Skyler has a young son that he said thankfully slept through all the events late Friday night and early Saturday morning.
“Seven o’clock comes and I’m woken up to my bedroom window breaking because she decides to start shooting that out. And at that point, we called non-emergency again and that’s when the standoff started,” Skyler said.
They were eventually evacuated from their home and Skyler was able to return to the residence around 12:30 a.m. Sunday.
White Crane surrendered to police Saturday and was taken into custody. She was charged with attempted deliberate homicide for shooting a Billings police officer during the standoff and criminal mischief. Her bail was set Tuesday at $250,000.
The officer, Mike Yarina, is being treated in a local hospital.
