The armed Helena woman killed near the courthouse Friday by law enforcement was there to make an appearance before she reportedly made threats to staff, according to her husband, who said the gun she was carrying was his.
“I am 99% sure it wasn’t loaded because I have the magazine downstairs," Michael Moore, Danielle Moore’s husband, told the Independent Record on Tuesday as he stood in the front yard of their Helena home. "I just think she wanted to be heard and that was her piece to get heard. I know 100% of everything that she wasn’t going to hurt nobody.”
He told the newspaper he was glad to be "talking to somebody,” adding “I have not gotten a single phone call from the police or anybody.”
Michael Moore stands in front of his Helena home on March 18.
The Montana Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating the incident because the Helena Police Department and Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office were involved in the fatal shooting. The woman was killed down the street from the courthouse.
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Danielle Marie Moore, 36, was to be arraigned Tuesday on a prior incident alleging felony assault on a peace officer, court documents state. However, charges were dropped by prosecutors who said the defendant was deceased. She was listed on Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Mike Menahan's docket before her name was removed from the final draft.
A motion for dismissal was filed by a Lewis and Clark County attorney Monday without prejudice and noted Moore was dead.
She was charged Feb. 25 with felony assault on a peace officer and misdemeanor partner or family member assault, documents filed in Lewis and Clark County Justice Court state.
Danielle Marie Moore
Moore was charged after a Helena police officer was dispatched to the 800 block of Maple Street for a domestic disturbance. She got into an altercation with her husband that got physical, court documents state.
Moore told an officer her husband "swung at her" before she stood up and yelled in his face. A court complaint states Moore told the officer her husband pushed her out of the room and caused her to hit her head.
The husband, listed as the victim in court documents, told an officer Moore headbutted him "five to six times" before he told her to get off of him and pushed her away.
When a Helena Police Department officer told Moore she was under arrest, she punched him in the face, court documents state. Her arraignment was set for March 18.
On Friday, March 14, Moore was involved in a fatal shooting after being uncompliant with commands from officers and deputies, authorities said.
Law enforcement officers from multiple agencies respond to an active shooter incident on Broadway Street in Helena on March 14.
An initial call for service, or 911 call log document, said at around 1:30 p.m. on March 14 a caller told dispatch there was an active shooter threatening a Lewis and Clark County District Court judge, a news release from the Helena Police Department and Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office said.
A caller said a woman was in a white van with a pistol on her before the woman went East on Broadway Street to the 500 block, according to documents.
There, she was contacted by law enforcement and was killed after not complying with commands, officials said.
Authorities released Moore's name Monday and said the investigation into the incident was continuing.
Officials with the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation said Tuesday they are "continuing all week with witness interviews, submittal of physical evidence to the state crime lab, and any background investigative work that needs to be completed."
Michael Moore said he works nights and had woken up in time to see his wife at 12:30 p.m. Friday before she left the house.
“She was all fancy for court and I said she looked OK, she was getting our family pictures out to take and was worried about meeting her lawyer,” he said, adding they have three daughters. “There was no idea this was going to happen.”
Michael and Danielle Moore
"I just think she felt hopeless and scared,” Michael Moore said.
He said later, “The only thing I can think of it that she wanted to be heard.”
Moore said there was a possibility of two-10 years in prison for punching an officer.
“I think maybe she wanted to have a talk and let the judges or whoever know there is more to this story … It’s much bigger."
“She wouldn’t hurt anybody,” Moore said. “She blessed people every day.”
"I’ve watched more than one time that she would give the coat off her back to people, our last few dollars, to somebody who needed it,” he said.
“She followed God like nobody’s business,” he said. “It was her life, to help others.”
Sonny Tapia is a criminal justice and education reporter for the Helena Independent Record. Staff writer Phil Drake can be reached at phil.drake@helenair.com or 406-231-9021.
Sonny Tapia
Education and Criminal Justice Reporter
Phil Drake
Managing editor
