A Flathead Valley war veteran who was shot by Kalispell Police officers four years ago and one of the officers involved in the shooting testified Wednesday about their recollections of the incident during a civil jury trial underway in Flathead County District Court.

Ryan Pengelly, 35, sued the city of Kalispell and the police department in 2019 after he was shot by two Kalispell Police Department officers inside his home in January 2016 while answering a call about the mental health of Pengelly’s mother, Bonnie.

Pengelly described his life before and after the shooting, saying it “has affected his view of police and he doesn’t trust them.

“I want to trust them, I really do. I used to view them as protectors,” he said in court.

Pengelly said he saw military and police as the same, “a little bit different in the way they operate, but I didn’t feel negative toward them,” he said.

Pengelly said he was hospitalized for about a month after the shooting. He said his pancreas and liver were damaged and he had some damaged intestines removed during surgery following the shooting.

“I can’t process lettuce or eat mushrooms anymore,” he said.

Pengelly described his military service after graduating from Flathead High School.

“I was on active duty for 7 ½ years and 2 ½ National Guard. I was deployed twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq,” Pengelly said.

On the day he was shot by officers Chad Zimmerman and Eric Brinton, Jan. 12, 2016, Pengelly said he had worked a shift at Glacier Taxi before coming home and playing video games until 3 a.m. He said he then drank some Nyquil and went to sleep. He said he awoke later to the sounds of his mother screaming.

“The screaming almost made me kick my cat off the bed,” he said. “I put my underwear on, grabbed my rifle out of instinct, put it in the low ready position and ran into the living room.

“I saw shadows and was still trying to figure out what was going on,” Pengelly said. “I didn’t know who it was and heard ‘drop your weapon.’ When I turned in the direction of the voice, the gun was pointing at the officer. I did not take aim, but when I shifted, my gun fell to my shoulder.

“I would never knowingly point a gun at an officer,” he said.

The gun was an AR-15, a weapon Zimmerman said he was familiar with because he is also a military veteran who has served as a combat arms instructor in the Air Force in the 1980s and then as a police firearms instructor with the Montana Highway Patrol.

“I’ve trained with it (AR-15) as other officers have in the department,” Zimmerman said. “It’s the first time anyone has ever pointed a gun at me and the first time I’ve had to shoot someone.”

Zimmerman described the chaotic scene he was in while trying to help fellow officer Eric Brinton take Bonnie Pengelly, Ryan’s mother, for a mental health evaluation. Previous testimony indicated Bonnie had made suicidal and homicidal threats to coworkers days before the shooting, resulting in officers attempting to take her for an evaluation at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

“Officer Brinton was trying to handcuff her and was trying to assist him when Mr. O’Malley came out of a bedroom. I instinctively pulled my sidearm in case I needed it. He couldn’t see it (the gun) and I told him to go back into the bedroom,” Zimmerman said.

O’Malley returned to the bedroom, but then Ryan Pengelly came out of his bedroom, according to Zimmerman.

“I saw a figure coming at me and Mr. Pengelly snapped the rifle up at me after I told him to drop it. I then fired,” Zimmerman said. “I was scared, yes,” he said to a question from attorney Natasha Jones, who is representing the City of Kalispell.

Pengelly attorney Paul Leisher then asked Zimmerman about crisis intervention techniques fellow KPD officer Jim Wardensky had put together to help officers deal with mentally ill people.

Leisher asked Zimmerman if it was a priority for a person to know if they were safe.

“It may or may not be true, they may want to hurt themself or someone else,” Zimmerman said. “Bonnie’s actions dictated what we did.”

It was a sentiment Ryan Pengelly echoed when questioned by Jones. He said he understood why police would want to follow up on the threats she made.

Ryan testified his mother hated police and it was a belief she had before Jan. 12, 2016. He said she knew he kept an AR-15 loaded with a bullet in the chamber.

“I told her that if someone came into the house I’d point a gun at them,” Pengelly said.

The plaintiff also said he would understand why anyone would be frightened if a gun was pointed at them. He said the bullets in the gun were capable of penetrating body armor worn by police.

Ryan Pengelly also spoke of the strained and hostile relationship with his mother, how it cost him two marriages and how he wanted to get her help.

“I wanted my mom to get help and I had tried to get her into Pathways, but she wouldn’t go,” he said.

He also shared that a month before the incident, he told Bonnie she would have to live somewhere else if the bad behavior didn’t stop.”

Pengelly also said he wishes officers had called him before coming to the house.

“She’s made threats to kill herself my whole life for attention, but she never attempted it and I would have told them that,” he said.

He also said if he had one of the officers say “police” during the incident with his mother, he wouldn’t have grabbed the rifle.

Jones questioned Ryan Pengelly about the shooting and differing statements he made to Flathead County Sheriff’s Office investigators during a deposition in preparation for the trial and while on the stand Wednesday.

“When you heard ‘drop the gun’ you didn’t do anything to make them think you weren’t a threat?” Jones asked.

Pengelly replied he didn’t do anything to end the threat.

Pengelly also said he wanted an apology from his mother and said “none of this would’ve happened if Bonnie would’ve listened to officers.”

Testimony is expected to resume at 9 a.m. Thursday.

Reporter Scott Shindledecker may be reached at 758-4441 or [email protected].