A man from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation is scheduled to go to trial in February 2009 for allegedly shooting a Bureau of Indian Affairs police officer.

Kelly C. Ward, 43, pleaded not guilty to three assault counts and two gun violations. He is accused of shooting Sgt. Louis Poitra, a member of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, on September 10.

The BIA sent Poitra to Standing Rock as part of a "surge" to combat high crime rates on the reservation. He was responding to a domestic violence call when he was shot.

The reservation straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border.

Get the Story:
Little Eagle man's trial set for officer shooting (AP 11/2)

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