Man Jailed After Threatening to Harm People at Ravalli Fair

Austin Fugelberg is in the Ravalli County Detention Center after allegedly making threats to shoot or otherwise harm visitors at the Ravalli County Fair.

Ravalli County Sheriff Steve Holton said on Tuesday that cooperation with both the Missoula Police Department and the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office may have helped to prevent what could have been a tragic incident.

“Missoula County Sheriff’s Office notified Hamilton Police about some statements that Mr. Fugleberg had made about possibly creating a disturbance or causing an incident at the Ravalli County Fair,” said Holton. “It actually originated through the Missoula City Police Department. The Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office got involved last Saturday and the statements were concerning enough and the threats were there, that we took him into custody for felony intimidation.”

Holton said having the suspect in the Ravalli County Detention Center is the safest option for all involved.

“That’s the best case scenario on something like this when the public shares the information and law enforcement can act proactively to make sure that we have a safe fair this year,” he said. “With conditions of bail and bond I really don’t anticipate any problems at the fair.”

This is not the first time that Ravalli County authorities have been proactive when threats were made.

In March, 2018 18 year-old MacLean Kaiser was arrested for felony intimidation and Sheriff Holton placed him under arrest after he made threats toward Darby High School.

“It’s nearly the exact same scenario,” he said. “It’s the same statute and the same law that we applied. Like I said I think that we’re successful in that something bad hasn’t happened here because our community reports things they hear and then we proactively respond to those incidents.”

Kaiser’s threats reportedly came in the wake of the school shootings in Florida.