"He showed his hands initially," St. John said. "He retreated into the building and then the next thing we saw was a rifle barrel that was pointed in the direction of officers."

One of the police officers saw the gun and fired at the door, driving the man back inside. At that point, police completely blocked off King Avenue West in front of the store.

After trying to re-establish phone contact with the man, he showed up at the store's front entrance about a half-hour later. The man failed to heed the commands of the police officers, and he and the officers exchanged gunfire.

"After the last volley happened we had no activity or conversation or communication," St. John said.

Police could see, via store cameras, that the gunman wasn't moving. They waited 30 minutes before sending a bomb squad robot inside to get a close-up view of the scene.

"We sent our robot in to double-check because previously (the man) had feigned that he was going to give up, so we didn't want to put anybody at risk," St. John said.

After assessing the situation, tactical team members from BPD and the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office entered the store to confirm the man was dead.