Wolf Point man sentenced to 15 years in prison for parking lot murder

GREAT FALLS - A man from Wolf Point who shot and killed one man and wounded another last fall was sentenced today to 188 months in prison, followed by 5 years of supervised release, Acting U.S. Attorney Mark Steger Smith said.

Ethan Louis Murphy, 27, pleaded guilty in February 2026 to one count of second degree murder and one count of using a firearm in a crime of violence.

U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris presided.

The government alleged in court documents that Murphy, carrying a handgun, walked up to two men in a grocery store parking lot and shot them, killing one and injuring the other.

Law enforcement first responded at 8:41 p.m. Sept. 28, 2025, when a 911 call reported gunshots in the Wolf Point Albertsons parking lot on the Fort Peck Reservation. Wolf Point police officers arrived and found two men on the ground, one of them dead from a gunshot wound to the head and the other injured.

Officers with Fort Peck Tribal Criminal Investigations and the FBI investigated the scene and collected four 9mm Luger casings. Surveillance from the grocery store showed Murphy walking up to one of the victims with his gun drawn and shooting him a single time in the head when the victim pulled out a black machete. Murphy then shot the second victim. A bystander called out, "It was Ethan, it was Ethan."

Murphy turned himself in two days later on Sept. 30, 2025. Law enforcement found him in the passenger seat of a car with the pistol and ammunition they later matched to the shooting.

The U.S. Attorney's Office prosecuted the case. The FBI, Fort Peck Tribes Department of Law and Justice, and the Wolf Point Police Department conducted the investigation.