A Columbia Falls fugitive was wounded in a shootout near Spokane early Tuesday morning.

Bonnie Ulrick, 37, apparently had fled to Spokane after cutting off the GPS monitoring bracelet she was required to wear pending her sentencing in Flathead County for felony crimes.

Spokane County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Mark Gregory said the incident began at about 3 a.m. Tuesday when deputies responded to the Motel 6 at 1919 N. Hutchinson Road in the Spokane Valley to follow up on a report of a stolen vehicle.

When deputies contacted Ulrick and 32-year-old Eric Heil — both wanted on felony warrants out of Flathead County — it became a standoff and a SWAT team was called in along with negotiators.

“At some point during that, the female reportedly pointed a pistol out the window” and fired at least one shot, Gregory said.

The SWAT team returned fire and Ulrick was hit in the hand. She was taken to a hospital and Heil was arrested. Ulrick’s wound was not life-threatening.

A Kalispell Police Department dispatch log indicates that between cutting off her monitoring bracelet and arriving in Spokane, Ulrick stayed the night with a woman whom she told she would get in a gunfight before being taken into custody.

The shooting is under investigation by the multi-agency Spokane Investigative Regional Response team.

Ulrick had pleaded guilty Jan. 15 in Flathead District Court to felony counts of criminal possession of dangerous drugs and deceptive practices. District Judge Robert Allison granted her a temporary release on Feb. 20 with the requirements that Ulrick be on GPS monitoring and wear a drug testing patch.

Ryan Keeler of Compliance Monitoring Services, who was monitoring Ulrick for the court, said she cut off the bracelet around noon on Sunday.

“We had [Kalispell police] at the site where she cut it off within about three or four minutes, five at most, and I came up from Lakeside,” Keeler said. “She had ditched it in a drive-through mailbox. We called the postmaster, who came and opened up the box and we found it there, cut.”

Keeler said Ulrick had been released Feb. 24 and only made it six and a half days into her approved 14 days of release before ditching the device.

A plea agreement in Ulrick’s case stipulated that, when she was to be sentenced on March 13, the Flathead County Attorney’s Office was planning to recommend a sentence of five years with the Montana Department of Corrections followed by 10 years of probation.

It would have been her second stay with the Corrections Department and, according to Keeler, the third state in which she had been jailed. She also had been incarcerated in Minnesota and Idaho.

Ulrick spent approximately $1,350 on a stolen debit card and later threw up several small baggies of methamphetamine she had swallowed in the back of a police car after being arrested.

A third charge of felony accountability to burglary was dismissed and the plea agreement indicated that Ulrick agreed to pay $540 in restitution for her alleged involvement in a June 25, 2013, robbery of the Blue and White Motel in Kalispell.

Flathead County Deputy Attorney Alison Howard said Tuesday no decision had yet been made about whether Ulrick would now be charged with bail jumping.

“We’re not sure how we’ll deal with these newest circumstances,” Howard said.

Following Ulrick’s flight from Kalispell, a $30,000 criminal contempt warrant was issued for her arrest. Between her initial arrest and her Feb. 24 release, she was held at the Flathead County Detention Center on a $75,000 bond.

Keeler said the FBI also was involved in the case of Ulrick’s flight and standoff because she crossed state lines.

In a previous brush with the law, Ulrick was sentenced to five years with the Corrections Department for criminal endangerment and felony assault on a peace officer.

According to the Missoulian, Ulrick led officers on a high-speed chase from Plains to Thompson Falls in February 2005, four days after her fiance seriously wounded another man and then committed suicide at her home.

Ulrick jumped out of her car at one point and threatened to shoot herself with a handgun, brandishing the firearm at several officers and chasing a Sanders County reserve deputy. At one point, she shot herself in the arm. She was eventually taken into custody after a struggle.

Ulrick later admitted to police that she had been trying to get officers to kill her.

Heil, her companion in Spokane, previously was sentenced to two years with the Corrections Department followed by three years of probation on a 2002 felony burglary case. Later he received the same sentence in December 2009 after being convicted of felony deceptive practices.

Heil denied allegations that he violated the conditions of his probation at hearings in July, August, September and November last year.

His warrant was for $50,000 for burglary as well as violations of his probation.

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.