Former South Dakota Mayor Arrested for Triple Murder in His Hometown

The former mayor of a South Dakota city was arrested Monday on allegations he fatally shot three people in the same community he once represented, including a man who was still speaking with a 911 dispatcher at the time of his death.

Jay Ostrem, 64, faces a trio of first-degree murder charges and is being held on a $1 million bail in Sioux Falls—about 45 minutes northeast of where police said the shooting took place in rural Turner County.

The South Dakota Attorney General’s office said in a statement that shots were fired at a home in Centerville, a town of less than 1,000, around 10 p.m. Monday night. Authorities did not list a motive for the crime, but local news outlets, including South Dakota Searchlight, reported that a probable cause affidavit said Ostrem justified the shooting by claiming it was in retaliation to a sexual assault on his wife.

Read more at The Daily Beast.