Rating:

0.0 (0 votes)

GLASGOW- Valley County Sheriff Glen Meier believes the West Virginia man who first told authorities he'd been shot, but later confessed to shooting himself in the arm, was intentionally aiming for book publicity.

On the evening of June 9, Raymond Dolin told authorities that on the evening of June 9th an unknown man in a dirty maroon truck came up and shot him, leading police to charge Christopher Danielson, who had a truck of a similar description.

Danielson has since been cleared of all charges.

During a Monday morning press conference in Glasgow Meier said Dolin left a message for his girlfriend in Washington at the time of the shooting. Officers listening to the voicemail heard a gun shot, and Dolin saying he'd been shot, but no sound of a vehicle.

The evidence led to Dolin's confession when authorities confronted him Thursday in Miles City. "We let the air out of his balloon," Meier said. "We had such concise evidence to present to him, he couldn't lie."

Meier said Dolin bought the gun used in the shooting on June 4th in West Virginia, then took a bus to Sidney and hitchhiked to Glasgow. Meier believes Dolin was planning to shoot himself.

"As he's walking toward the rest area out of Glasgow, he disposes of all the extra bullets and the box they came in. I sincerely believe that he came to this area to do this stunt." Meier said.

Meier believes Dolin picked the Glasgow area because his story might have seemed more believable in the Bakken Oil Field area..

Dolin is in an undisclosed hospital for treatment and has not been charged with any crime.