Standing Rock man assaulted hours before death by train

But Running Bear never arrived. More than an hour and a half later, at 12:09 a.m., a call came in to dispatch that a man, who didn’t have identification on him, had been hit by a BNSF train. Rough Surface-Arnett didn’t find out her son was hit until later that morning. After confirming with police that the man hit was her son, Rough Surface-Arnett rushed to the hospital. Just before she arrived, her son’s heart stopped beating. She held him, praying over his body, until investigators asked her to step away because his body could be evidence of a homicide.

For months leading up to his death, Running Bear and his family, citizens of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, had been receiving death threats. Running Bear was one of the last people to be seen with Renzo Bullhead, who went missing on March 16, and the threats insinuated that he was involved in Bullhead’s disappearance. Rough Surface-Arnett shared some of the messages with Buffalo’s Fire. One said “you will go down you and your kids.” Another said “i hope you get put in a grave.” Fearing for her son’s safety, Rough Surface-Arnett persuaded her son to take a break from school at United Tribes Technical College and stay home.

The family didn’t just face threats. Hours before he was captured by the security camera, Running Bear sustained significant injuries from an assault. Rough Surface-Arnett said he was hospitalized, given medication for pain and then released. She said there was also an attempted assault two weeks prior to his death, but her son managed to get away.

She also said that she shared screenshots of the threats with investigators in the months leading up to Running Bear’s death and that investigators told her they would provide extra patrol officers around her house. She saw patrol officers a couple of times, but she said she was told to call 911 if those making the threats showed up at her house.

Mandan Police Department Detective Matthew Graves told Buffalo’s Fire that one of Running Bear’s assaulters was Chozey Morsette, who is now in custody in Minot for an unrelated homicide. Graves said Morsette was investigated in relation to Hoksila’s death, but investigators ruled him out as a suspect after speaking with his alibis.

“At this point in time, the evidence we have is that it is not likely to be a homicide,” Graves said of Running Bear’s death. He added that the department hasn’t ruled out homicide completely, as they are still gathering information.

Graves said the department is also investigating the assaults and harassment against the family as a separate case.

Rough Surface-Arnett said she believes the assault hours before Running Bear’s death should not be treated as a separate incident.

Much of the timeline prior to her son’s death has led to more questions than answers.

“He comes over the tracks, walks over the hill into the tree line, then you can no longer see him,” said Rough Surface-Arnett, who watched the security footage with investigators. “He ended up 50 yards to the east up on the tracks.”

She said someone who appears to be her son is seen crossing the street, appearing coherent, walking normally and even waiting for traffic, despite a medical examiner report finding Running Bear’s blood alcohol level to be 0.19%, more than twice the legal limit.

“For someone his age and weight, how is it possible for him to be walking at that point?” Rough Surface-Arnett said.

Rough Surface-Arnett said that there was a car in the vicinity around the same time as her son’s death and that hours after the incident someone can be seen appearing from the woods and walking toward the area her son was found.

Neither the vehicle nor the person on foot has been identified, she said, adding she wants investigators to interview potential witnesses.

Rough Surface-Arnett said she has six other children and now has custody of Running Bear’s four-year-old daughter. “My granddaughter is only four, and she no longer has her mom or dad,” she said.

Rough Surface-Arnett describes her son as having a very close bond with his daughter, Arianna, who lost her mother to an overdose in April.

“He looks out for everybody that he cares for,” Rough Surface-Arnett said of her son. “He’s very protective of everyone that he loves.”

She said for a while, her son was also close with Renzo Bullhead’s family, since the boys were cousins. The boys grew up together, occasionally going to pumpkin patches around October. Running Bear and Bullhead both studied welding at United Tribes Technical College.

After getting his degree, Running Bear wanted to join the Marines. As a child, his mother said, he was “very energetic and athletic,” playing football, dancing for powwows and wrestling.

“My sons are really having a hard time,” Rough Surface-Arnett said. “One of my sons, he misses his brother. That was his best friend. My other sons wish they would’ve been here more often for him, but they have their own lives. They are all older now.”

Rough Surface-Arnett said she tries her best to advocate for her remaining children, who are grieving alongside her. But she will not give up her fight for answers about what happened the night of Running Bear’s death, and what ultimately led to it.

In an email to the tribe dated Dec. 29, Rough Surface-Arnett asks for child welfare services, grief and trauma services, survivor benefits and wrongful death advocacy.

“I am writing this formal letter to express my intent to seek comprehensive support and advocacy following the tragic and wrongful death of my son, Hoksila, on October 26, 2025,” she said in the letter, which she shared with Buffalo’s Fire. “This loss has left a profound void in our family and our community, but most urgently, it has left his four-year-old daughter without her father.”

Rough Surface-Arnett said she did not receive a response to the email. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe did not respond to a request for comment.