BILLINGS, Mont. — A West Virginia man who told authorities he was hitchhiking across the country and writing a memoir about kindness was injured in a seemingly random drive-by shooting near Montana’s booming Bakken oil patch.
Ray Dolin, 39, was shot in the arm as he approached a pickup Saturday evening, thinking the driver, a man from Tumwater, was offering him a ride, said Valley County Sheriff Glen Meier.
A 52-year-old man, Lloyd Christopher Danielson III, was arrested about four hours later near Culbertson. Authorities said Danielson was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. They released no motive in the shooting.
“He was sitting down to have a little lunch and this guy drives up. He thought he was going to give him a ride, and as he approached the vehicle, the guy pulls out his weapon and shoots him. It’s as simple as that,” Meier said.
Danielson was apparently headed to Williston, N.D., for work tied to the oil boom, although Meier said he offered few details.
Meier did not know if any words were exchanged between the alleged shooter and victim before Dolin was shot. He said they did not know each other.
Dolin was being treated at Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital in Glasgow. A nurse said Monday that he was not taking calls or accepting messages.
Dolin had told sheriff’s officials that he was writing a memoir titled “Kindness in America.” His father, Melvin Dolin, in Julian, W.Va., declined to speak about his son’s plans, saying he had been working on his photography.
“I’d rather you eventually get that story from him. He had some ideas about that,” he said.
After graduating from college, Ray Dolin started a freelance photography business called OneShot Impressions, his father said. The website for the business features a logo of the cross hairs of a rifle scope, and has a statement from Dolin citing photography and travel as “two of my greatest passions in life.”
Dolin left West Virginia last week bound for Washington state, Melvin Dolin said. He took a bus to the edge of Montana and intended to work his way to Washington from there, the father said.
“He was on the way across the country taking pictures,” Melvin Dolin said, adding that his son’s travel plans had been flexible. “He was going to make up his mind as he travelled along. But he didn’t get that far.”
Danielson was jailed on suspicion of felony assault with a weapon and driving under the influence. He did not enter a plea during an initial court appearance Monday, and City Judge Traci Harada set bail for Danielson at $50,000 on the assault charge and $685 for the DUI. He was expected to make another court appearance today.
The Sheriff’s Office had identified Danielson as a resident of Olympia, but he said in court that he was from Tumwater, Harada said.
Danielson has criminal convictions in King County, for assault, unlawful possession of a firearm, obstruction of law enforcement, and exhibiting or carrying a weapon with intent to intimidate. Records show he was sentenced in 2005 to eight months in jail on the charges.
