Police were task-saturated before shooting

SANDPOINT — Law enforcement in North Dakota was too consumed with a shots-fired call to dispatch officers to a rowdy bar shortly before a former Sandpoint resident shot another man to death, The Williston Herald is reporting.

Jonathan Peter Horvath is charged with shooting 28-year-old Derrick Spiegel outside a bar in downtown Williston on March 16, touching off a manhunt that ended on March 18 in Billings, Mont.

Horvath, 46, was arrested after a brief foot chase and has since waived extradition to North Dakota, according to The Billings Gazette.

Spiegel was shot after a series of verbal altercations inside a downtown bar. Staff at the bar called Williston Police to patrol the area because of a “rowdy crowd,” but The Herald reported that officers were task-saturated with a report of shots being fired in another part of town.

Spiegel was shot to death not long after bouncers at Whisper’s bar placed the call to law enforcement.

“If you’ve got people shooting a gun off, you send just about everybody you can,” Williston Police Chief Jim Lokken told the paper.

Multiple witnesses reported seeing Horvath run off toward train tracks and Williston detective later discovered that he received a ride to Alexander, N.D.

Law officers ultimately spotted Horvath traveling in an unidentified vehicle.

“He jumped out of a moving vehicle in a field off of County 20,” said a dispatch log obtained by The Herald.

Horvath was tracked to Billings by a tip, according to The Gazette.