UPDATED: Arrest linked to fatal shooting at crew camp near Tioga

One man died and another was wounded in a shooting on Saturday at the Wanzek crew camp just outside of Tioga, N.D., along Highway 2. Amy Dalrymple/Forum Communications Co.

TIOGA, N.D. – Three men working on pipeline construction were involved in a weekend shooting at a crew camp near here that resulted in one fatality.

Gerald Wayne Schild, 57, of Katy, Texas, died as a result of injuries suffered in a shooting that was reported at 10:15 p.m. Saturday at the Wanzek man camp along Highway 2 near Tioga, said the Williams County Sheriff’s Office.

A second man, Travis William Lomax, 38, Fort Smith, Ark., was treated for a gunshot wound.

Authorities arrested Victor Scott Lamont, 24, Lufkin, Texas, in connection with the shootings. Charges had not been filed as of Monday afternoon.

The men worked on pipeline construction for Michels Construction, based in Wisconsin, said Michels spokesman Thad Nation.

Wanzek Construction of Fargo houses employees at the camp, which is known as the Wanzek camp. No Wanzek employees were involved with the incident, said Russ Boyle, Wanzek human resources manager.

Michels Construction subleases units from Wanzek for its workers, Boyle said.

The camp prohibits firearms and alcohol, Boyle said. Dakota Land Properties of Sioux Falls, S.D., owns the camp and provides security, Boyle said.

Williams County Sheriff Scott Busching said there had not been any previous issues with the crew camp.

Michels Construction officials plan to talk to Wanzek about increasing security for protection of their employees, Nation said.

“We want to work with them to figure out how to beef up security at the camp,” Nation said.

Michaels also is encouraging employees to cooperate with the investigation, Nation said.

Lomax was released from the hospital within 24 hours and had returned to the camp, Nation said.

The capacity of the crew camp is 180 people, according to the Williams County Planning and Zoning department.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>