Officers shot and killed a man who was reportedly acting erratically under a Worland bridge after he fired a handgun at them Monday evening when they tried to arrest him, the Worland Police Department reported the following day.
One officer sustained a non life-threatening gunshot wound during the encounter, Worland Police Chief Gabe Elliot wrote in a statement posted Tuesday to the department’s Facebook page. The unidentified officer was hospitalized but released the same day, Elliot wrote.
The statement did not specify whether the man killed by police was the person who fired the shot that hit the officer. Nor did it offer details about the officer’s injuries.
Elliot did not respond Tuesday afternoon to a WyoFile voicemail seeking further information. After this story initially published online, Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Commander Ryan Cox told WyoFile that while further investigation was needed, the round that struck the officer did not appear to be friendly fire.
Officers responded to the New River Bridge, an access point to Worland over the Bighorn River, at 6:45 p.m. Monday, after someone reported a man yelling and kicking his belongings around in an area under the bridge, according to Elliot’s Facebook post. Elliot described the man as 37 years old and declined to name him.
In a separate press release issued Tuesday, DCI announced it would conduct an inquiry into the shooting and asked witnesses or people with surveillance cameras in the area to contact the department.
Responding officers found the man standing by his vehicle, but when he saw police approaching he got back in, Elliot wrote. The man later complied with a request to exit his car and talk to officers. A supervising officer – neither Elliot nor DCI named the responding officers – who came onto the scene recognized the man as being a suspect from an investigation into a property crime earlier that day.
The supervisor told officers to arrest the man, according to Elliot. “The male physically resisted arrest as he began to fight with the officers,” the chief wrote. The man appears to have been able to hold off officers attempting an arrest and “produced a handgun,” which he then fired at officers. Neither Elliot nor DCI’s press release states how many shots the man fired.
There were four Worland police officers on scene, and two of them returned fire, according to Elliot’s press release. They shot the man, who died at the scene. Those two officers are on administrative leave, Elliot wrote. That’s a common response after police shootings regardless of what party was at fault.
Elliot’s social media post does not mention whether the officers’ bodyworn cameras captured the shooting, or when such footage would be released. (Police bodycam footage is not a mandated public record in Wyoming.) DCI’s press release states that investigators will analyze digital evidence, as well as physical evidence from the scene, but it does not specify what evidence was available. It is common practice in Wyoming for DCI agents to investigate police shootings around the state. The agency has developed an investigative group to respond to such incidents.
DCI’s report is then provided to a county prosecutor, whether that’s the district attorney of the county where the incident occurs or a special prosecutor brought in from the outside.
That attorney then makes the decision about whether officers’ use of force was justified, or if the responding officers might face any criminal charges.
UPDATE: This story has been updated to include addition information from Wyoming DCI. –Ed.
