Billings police responded Sunday evening to a report of shots fired inside a home on White Star Circle and arrived to find the residence fully engulfed in flames. The scene in Billings' West End stayed active into the night as multiple agencies worked the block after 6 p.m.
Billings Police Sgt. Jeff Stovall said officers were able to verify that shots were being fired from inside the residence before the fire took over the house. One person was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not immediately known, and police had not released information about any fatalities by Sunday night.
For neighbors, the first sign something was wrong was the sound. David Hiller said he could hear gunshots from his driveway, then watched sheriffs move through his backyard and his neighbor's backyard with long guns before he turned and saw the front of the home burning. He also livestreamed video of the fire on social media and said, “It was just like black plumes of smoke, and then a full-on fire erupted.”
The fire did not stay contained to the house. Nearby homes on the block were evacuated as a safety precaution while the Billings Police Department, Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office, Montana Highway Patrol, Billings Fire Department and medical personnel remained on scene. Authorities had not said what led to the shooting or what sparked the blaze, and Stovall said the investigation could take several days.
That unanswered question was hanging over the block as people watched from a distance. Hiller said, “We think we saw a body out front of the house that looked unresponsive,” but police had not confirmed any death by Sunday night. Marlon Duke, who came out after seeing smoke, called it a quiet neighborhood and said it was shocking to see something like this happen there.
What happened inside White Star Circle home is still unclear, but the sequence is not: shots, fire, evacuation, and a scene that will remain under investigation for days. For Billings residents, the immediate question is less about what was seen from the street than what police find once the smoke clears.
