Man arrested on attempted murder charge

A local man is in the Hill County jail facing charges he tried to kill a man by jumping on his chest.

Elias Stump of Box Elder, born in 1982, was in the Hill County Detention Center this morning, being held on $250,000 bond on a charge of attempted deliberate homicide.

According to a court document, Hill County sheriff’s deputies responded to a call at 5:07 p.m. Wednesday in which the callers reported a disturbance near the 22nd Avenue rail crossing in Havre.

A BNSF Railway worker flagged down the deputies and showed them where the victim was, the document said. The man was lying on his back in tall grass southwest of the railroad crossing, and appeared to have broken ribs and his chest and was caved in, the document said.

The man’s attacker had fled the scene, the two BNSF employees present said, after they intervened in the attack. They said the attacker had left the scene barefoot.

The man who was injured told the deputies he did not know the man who attacked him. He said he had been drinking vodka and watching the trains go by when the man approached him, and they started sharing the bottle and watching the train.

The injured man said the man then “snapped,” the document said, called him “Custer” and accusing him of “killing his people,” and then stood up and attacked him.

He said the attacker was jumping in the air and landing on his chest with the attacker’s knees, kicking him and kneeing him and kneeling on his throat.

After the victim was taken to the hospital, hospital staff said he had multiple broken ribs and other injuries and that his injuries could have been life-threatening if the assault had continued.

Based on descriptions given by the witnesses, Stump was determined to be a suspect and he was located Thursday in Havre. He was found with minor cuts and scrapes consistent with running barefoot, had bruises on his upper shin consistent with landing on his knees and what appeared to be blood on his clothing, the document said.

One of the BNSF employees picked Stump out of a photo lineup consisting of 12 photos and two blank pages, the document said. The other BNSF employee said he did not get close enough to the attacker to make a positive identification.