Commemorating a 30-year gift

SWAN VALLEY – "Don't have too much fun," Danni Parcell told her husband Missoula County Sheriff's Deputy Robert "Bob" Parcell as he headed out the door to respond to an assault call in Lake County June 27, 1992.

At 11:17 p.m. Bob was shot in the chest with a 41-magnum from 20 feet away after pulling over an alleged witness to the assault. Thirty years later he returned with Danni and their son Rincon to the exact spot where he remembers everything happened.

"I went back and kind of hugged my tree," Bob said.

"I never thought Bob would have gotten shot. It's not like we live in a big city or anything," Danni said. "I always worried more that he might get in a wreck or something. I was thrilled that he did not die."

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On June 27, 1992, there had been an assault with a knife north of Condon in Lake County and Bob was called to assist. This was his first call after returning from Marine Corps training in Washington, D.C.

Gordon Sellner was allegedly the driver who witnessed the altercation so Bob stopped at his home to talk with him. Bob was told he was on the road headed home. He decided if he saw Gordon he would stop him and talk with him.

Bob and Seeley Lake Deputy Sheriff Lloyd Hallgren continued back to Seeley Lake. Within a few miles they saw a sedan that Lloyd identified as Gordon's vehicle. Bob turned around and put on his lights to try to get him to stop. Lloyd continued to Seeley Lake.

"I was just calling it in and the door blasts open and a guy jumps out, drops something, picks something up and runs into the woods," Bob said in a September 2016 article in the Seeley Swan Pathfinder. "I said, 'I've got a runner.' I ran down into the barrow pits and just into the trees. I said 'Hey buddy, come on back, I just want to talk to you' and then pop, pop, pop. It happened that fast. It was pitch black and I realize I'm getting shot at."

Six rounds came in his direction. Bob remembered looking for cover to block him from the shooter. He headed for a tree and was hit in the chest and in the holster. As he moved to the left, Bob tripped on a log and fell to the ground.

"If I hadn't been moving, I may have been hit by more rounds," Bob said.

Bob returned fire in the general direction of the shooter with four shots, one that misfired. He returned to his patrol vehicle and realized there was still a driver in the vehicle that he had pulled over. The driver got out and he handcuffed him.

When Lloyd returned, Bob asked him where he had been hit. Lloyd said that the bullet had folded over the bottom point on his badge on the left side of his chest. Bob reached up under his own vest and came out with a handful of blood.

"I realized that I was worse off than I thought I was," said Bob. "It wasn't just a bruise. It was a pretty good hit."

At the time, the Parcells had five children at home under the age of seven. The youngest daughter Cascade was only three weeks old at the time.

Danni said she got a call before midnight that there had been a disturbance around Holland Lake Lodge. She was still awake when Swan Valley Quick Response Unit Volunteer Sue Holmes knocked on the door.

"I said, 'Hey, Sue what's up?'" Danni said and laughed. "Who comes to the door at midnight but I wasn't with it."

Sue told Danni that Bob was okay but he had been shot. When Danni gave her a dumbfounded look, Sue repeated it.

Danni remembered all kinds of people coming to the house that night including Lloyd's wife Patsy and Debbie Ogden. Patsy was concerned because she had heard on a scanner that a deputy had been shot but no names were given. She knew Lloyd did not have a bulletproof vest.

Bob was wearing his bulletproof vest.

When Bob first started as a Missoula County Sheriff's Office deputy in 1982, another deputy was shot in the chest without a bulletproof vest and did not survive his injuries. Even though they were just dating at the time, Danni told Bob to go get a vest. Deputies were not required to wear them but she did not care how much it cost.

Bob was flown to Kalispell Regional Hospital.

The Sheriff's Office Chaplin drove Danni, Cascade and Debbie to Kalispell. Sue volunteered to stay home with the four other children.

When Danni walked into Bob's room, the first thing she said to him was, "'The things you do for attention,'" Not to sound callus about her husband's situation Danni added, "You have to have a sense of humor and he was okay. I was just glad he was wearing his vest."

Bob had a two-inch hole the size of a silver dollar in his chest where he was shot. Danni said if he would not have been wearing his bulletproof vest or had so much muscle tissue, the bullet could have hit his heart.

Danni remembers when he got his holster back, she pointed out where a bullet had grazed his gun belt. If he wouldn't have been moving to the left, it could have hit him in the leg and hip.

"There is no vest there," Danni said. "We wouldn't have had [children] Summit, Johnny and Wrangle had it been different."

Bob recovered and served a 30-year career with the Marine Corps retiring in 2005 with the rank of Colonel. Upon retirement he resumed a full-time law enforcement career with Missoula County Sheriff's Office where he still serves as a Sergeant.

The Parcells commemorated the 30-year anniversary June 27 with a family visit to the place he was shot. Bob credits it as being the most significant work event he has had in his 40-year career in law enforcement. It was the first time he had been shot at in civilian service and the only time he has been hit.

"It brought everything back," Bob said about the visit. "It was a place and time I could have ended."

Bob continued, "I've always said it is a gift. Life itself is a gift but when that happened, I've always thought this is a gift to me. From then on until now and whatever I have left, it has been a gift."

The read the coverage of the incident visit https://www.seeleylake.com/home/customer_files/article_documents/1992-07-02.pdf