Former mayor of South Dakota town charged in shooting deaths of 3 men
A former South Dakota mayor has been arrested and charged in the fatal shooting of three people.
Jay Ostrem, 64, was booked Tuesday morning into the Minnehaha County Jail in connection with the Monday night shootings in Centerville, just south of Sioux Falls, according to the South Dakota Attorney General's office. Ostrem, who served as the mayor of small town Centreville nearly 15 years ago, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and is being held on a $1 million bond.
Gunfire was reported at a Centerville home shortly before 10 p.m. Monday, court documents show. Zach Frankus, one of the victims who reported the shooting, said his brother had been shot and killed by a man with a shotgun, adding that the shooter had returned to his home. After some time, Frankus told the dispatcher that he had been shot and eventually stopped speaking.
Documents say responding authorities saw Ostrem leaving the home. Ostrem initially ignored commands to stop before laying down on the ground, documents say.
Ostrem was bleeding from his left hand and smelled of alcohol, documents say. He had an AR-style rifle and a .380 handgun, as well as spent shotgun shell casings and a spent rifle casing.
Ostrem's initial appearance is scheduled for Wednesday. It was not immediately clear whether Ostrem has an attorney.
Ostrem's wife said he raged out of house
Authorities found three men dead inside the home. Court documents identify them as Paul Frankus, 26, Zach Frankus, 21, and Timothy Richmond, 35.
Ostrem's wife told authorities at his nearby home that she and Paul Frankus had been drinking together on May 23 when he forcibly kissed her and exposed his genitals to her, court records say.
She told Ostrem about the incident Monday evening, which sent him "raging out of the house," documents state.
She also told officers that he did not say anything about where he was going, and that he didn't leave armed, though she said he had weapons inside the home and possibly in his vehicle.
Who is Jay Ostrem?
Jay Osrtem was the mayor of Centerville in 2010 and has 20 years of law enforcement experience, archives show. He is from Gillette, Wyoming. Centerville is a town that has about 1,000 people.
Ostrem, was also a Turner County Sheriff's Office investigator in 2007 and a deputy in 2010, according to archives from the Argus Leader, part of the USA TODAY network. He assisted in the 2010 trial of Ethan Johns, who was convicted of killing sheriff's deputy Chad Mechels and sentenced to life in prison.
Ostrem sued for sexual harassment as mayor
Ostrem was also at the center of a two-year legal battle for Centerville when the city's former police chief filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ostrem when he served as the former mayor.
The two settled the lawsuit, but the former chief, Rachel Kopman, had alleged she was "repeatedly inundated with sexually inappropriate comments and remarks from Ostrem," for over a year during her tenure. Neither commented about the settlement at the time.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley spokesman Tony Mangan said Ostrem’s law enforcement certification expired in 2016, the South Dakota Searchlight reported.
Samantha Laurey contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Ex-South Dakota mayor Jay Ostrem charged in shooting deaths of 3 men
