Did Tribal Police in Montana Shoot Up a Store with BB Guns for Laughs?

Browning, Montana, has a population that hovers around 1,000 and is in the middle of absolute now​here. For most people, it's probably best known as the setting for the 19th episode of The X-Files, in which Mulder and Scully investigate the death of a Native American man. It was 92.7 percent Native American in 2010 and is currently served by the Blackfeet Tribal Police.

It's also where a man named Martin Marceau runs a car repair and towing business. And according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month, it's where bored tribal cops nearly blinded the business owner with BB guns confiscated from local kids, laughed about it, and then tried to convince victims to sign paperwork absolving them from blame. Now he's suing the United States for damages and medical costs.

According to a complaint that was filed last week, two uniformed police officers showed up to Marceau's Advanced Automotive in August of 2012. They fired BBs into the side of the shop, hitting the owner and causing "extreme physical pain, agony, emotional distress, trauma and fright." Several people were hit and Marceau himself was nearly blinded after one pellet hit him in the eye. "The two tribal officers laughed at the individuals who were shot," the complaint continues.

"It sounds like the cops got some guns from kids and decided, 'Oh, let's go tear up the town,'" Paul Gallardo, the lawyer who's handling the case, told me. "I think they just wanted to have a little fun."

Marceau had to seek treatment at a Missoula medical center for his injuries, which included temporary blindness. After he returned home, he was allegedly met by one of the offending officers, who asked him to sign a piece of paper saying he wasn't involved in the shooting. Marceau didn't sign the statement—and as a result, his attorney claims, Advanced Automotive experienced a decline in income. A good chunk of the operation is towing for the Blackfeet Tribal Police, because the town's not that big, and Marceau relied on the cops for business.

So now he's suing the US government for an unspecified amount of money because the department is under the control of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In 2003, the feds took over the police force because it had become lax: A government report showed officers were poorly trained and they often let politics interfere wit​h policing. A decade later the Missoulian reported that the Blackfeet were not reporting DUIs to​ the state.

If Marceau's complaint is to be believed, there is some fairly baroque small-town corruption going on here—it references one of the cops in question previously taking a police dog to a "drinking party" where he "instigated the dog to bite a person."

Ultimately it's unclear why the officers decided to shoot up the garage—or how details were collected about the confiscated guns or the shooters' laughter. No one could be reached at the Blackfeet Tribal Police, and Martin Marceau did not return a message left by VICE. But Gallardo says that Browning is small enough that the whole town knows the story.

"As far as this case is concerned, I don't think anyone denies it happened the way we say it did," he says. "Three or four people got hit. And the cops thought it was real funny."

Follow Allie Conti on ​Twitter.​