Mother of Five Shot to Death in Altercation Outside a Montana Bar

There are certainly more questions than answers right now surrounding this horrific tragedy.

What started as an argument over sitting in someone else's golf cart turned into a shooting. And a mother of five from northwest Montana won't be coming home to her kids.

Associated Press and the Hungry Horse News reported the story about a weekend altercation outside the South Fork Saloon in Martin City, 20 miles northwest of Kalispell. Witnesses told the Hungry Horse News that the victim, 28-year-old Dawn Mari Whisper (Sellars) Crosswhite of Hungry Horse and a friend of hers, were taking pictures while sitting in a golf cart that belonged to the shooting suspect, who drove the cart from a party in the area to the South Fork Saloon.

The suspect, reportedly from Kila, Montana, pushed Mrs. Crosswhite. Her husband witnessed this, and retaliated by pushing the suspect to the ground. And this is where things turned gruesome, as the suspect stood up and allegedly started firing a weapon.

Whisper died at the scene. At the time of our posting of this story, her husband, Doug Crosswhite, was in very serious condition at an area hospital. That is according to his father, Robert Crosswhite, via GoFundMe. Robert writes, "Doug spent 8 hours in surgery following the shooting and his future is still very much in limbo. Doug works for Glacier precast concrete and very much needs the function of his right arm that has been severely damaged.

"He will have a long road of recovery and enormous medical expenses as well as funeral costs on top of taking care of his 5 children."

The suspect, Del Orrin Crawford, has been booked into the Flathead County Jail and was scheduled to make an initial appearance today (Tuesday).

If you would like to assist in the GoFundMe account that Robert Crosswhite established for the children and husband of the victim, you can find more details here.