A woman shot and killed by police in April raised a handgun in the direction of officers after meeting them at the door of her central Casper home, body camera footage released Friday by the Casper Police Department shows.
The woman called police to her own home just after midnight on April 28 on a report of an armed burglar that appears to be false.
The footage, which includes a warning advising viewer discretion, shows that after calling 911 to report an armed burglar dressed in all black, 37-year-old Jody Cobia met officers at the door to her home in that same style of clothing, holding a handgun. “Where the fuck are my children?” Cobia yelled as she stepped toward the officers and raised a handgun in their direction.
Cobia is a mother of three, but did not appear to have custody of her children, according to court records previously reviewed by WyoFile. Police found no one else in the home, the video shows.
When Cobia raised the gun, officers expressed surprise and stepped back while two of them fired, according to the body camera footage released late Friday afternoon. The two officers fired five rounds over two seconds, according to narration by the department included in the footage.
Four officers responded to the burglary report initially. After shooting Cobia, they searched the rest of the house and did not find any evidence of an intruder. Department officials had previously told the public there was no indication that Cobia’s report of a burglar was accurate and that they believe she made the call to draw police to her home.
After searching the home, officers and paramedics provide life-saving measures to Cobia, but the first officers to reach her say on the body camera footage that they can’t feel her pulse. Immediately after shooting Cobia, some officers moved to enter the home, but a supervisor on scene told them to wait for about 15 seconds, while he yelled into the house and tried to ascertain if anyone else was home.
Officers take time to make sure no one else is in the house, including the possible armed burglar, and do not begin to give Cobia medical attention until around eight minutes after she was shot.
In the audio of the 911 call, a woman, presumably Cobia, tells dispatch someone “armed and dangerous” had broken into her house. The audio of the call released Friday does not identify the caller as Cobia, but the department said she made the call in its May 7 release.
“He’s wearing all black,” the caller says. “Please show up.”
She repeatedly tells the dispatcher to “hurry up,” but is not whispering into the phone on the call. “He’s inside,” the caller says, “please get inside. Please get over here.”
The caller tells the dispatcher the burglar is in a back room of the house, after previously saying she herself was in that same room. That appears to give the dispatcher pause. “And you’re in the back room?” the dispatcher asks the caller.
“Yeah, I’m running away from him,” the caller says. She ends the call shortly after that.
Officers arrived on scene about three minutes after the 911 call, which began one minute after midnight. Body camera footage then shows four officers approaching the house, shining flashlights along exterior walls and windows as they do so.
When an officer nears the door, Cobia appears to open it before he can knock. The pistol police say she held is difficult to make out in the body camera footage, but she appears to be holding it down by her waist as she opens the door. She then swings it up toward the officer’s head and takes hold of it in both hands as she yells about her children. Police fire at her immediately after that.
The incident remains under review by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, according to the Casper Police Department. After that inquiry, the case will be sent to the Natrona County District Attorney’s Office, which will decide whether the shooting was justified.
That 911 call sounds suspicious as hell. I know they have said it was homeowner but unless they match the phone number of the call to a phone only she had access too I have a really hard time believing she made the call herself. You don’t tend to mix up where you are and where an intruder is in your own home, and with what has been said on here about what was happening in her life before this…I’d be taking a hard look at that husband. Justified shooting or not.
Very tragic. Suicide by cop. I don’t know how this could have ended differently. Casper LEOs very transparent in this case. No editing, omission of audio etc. a trust building moment for those that rightfully are skeptical of police in these situations.
Nothing left but the terrible sadness and grief for survivors and for the officers and communications officers, placed in a terrible position. They will carry the memories with them through the rest of their respective lives.