Linn Jacob Cross Dog, III, Assaulting Federal Officers and Discharging a Firearm, South Dakota 2017

A Rapid City man has been sentenced to 240 months in prison for assaulting federal officers and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence in South Dakota.

Linn Jacob Cross Dog, III, age 23, was sentenced on May 22, 2017 by U.S. District Judge Roberto A. Lange.

Cross Dog was convicted of Assaulting Federal Officers and Discharging a Firearm During and in Relation to a Crime of Violence.

The conviction stems from a series of events that occurred in May 2016 on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation. At approximately 1:00 a.m., on the morning of May 11, 2016, a Rosebud Sioux Tribe Police Officer initiated a traffic stop of a vehicle with a headlight out near Parmelee, South Dakota.

While the officer was speaking to the driver outside of the vehicle, a second officer arrived and walked a drug detector canine around the vehicle. The canine alerted to a rear passenger door of the vehicle. Cross Dog, who had been seated in a passenger seat, climbed into the driver’s seat and told the remaining passengers, two women and two small children, that they were coming with him. He then drove away.

While he was driving, Cross Dog produced a handgun, brandished it at the passengers, and put the gun in his mouth. The police officers pursued Cross Dog’s vehicle at speeds up to 90 mph. After several minutes, Cross Dog turned onto a gravel road and stopped. He exited the vehicle and fled on foot with the handgun.

The officers pulled up and continued their pursuit on foot. One of the officers eventually caught up to Cross Dog, who was ignoring commands to stop, and struck Cross Dog with his baton. Cross Dog turned and fired his handgun at the officer, wounding the officer in the forearm. The officers returned fire, but could not locate Cross Dog in the thick brush where he was hiding.

Unable to see Cross Dog, the officers withdrew and sought medical attention for the wounded officer. Cross Dog escaped on foot. The wounded officer was taken by ambulance to Cherry County Hospital in Valentine, Nebraska, and then by air ambulance to Rapid City Regional Hospital in Rapid City. As a result of the shooting, he suffered life-threatening blood loss and a shattered ulna.

Cross Dog will also forfeit ownership of the handgun as part of his sentence. He was sentenced to 240 months in prison, followed by 5 years of supervised release, restitution in the amount of $840.60, and a special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund in the amount of $300.

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