When a Cheyenne man heard a “loud physical disturbance” between a man and woman in the apartment below him Saturday, he grabbed a pistol and went downstairs to intervene — and ended up shooting the man in the yelling match, police say.
The Cheyenne Police Department dispatched a Monday statement saying it is investigating the shooting.
Officers were dispatched to the scene at about 11 p.m. Saturday at an apartment complex in the 1700 block of Oxford Drive on reports that someone had died in a shooting.
Police found a 38-year-old man with apparent gunshot wounds. They administered first aid while waiting for medical personnel, but the man was declared dead on scene, says the CPD statement.
A loud physical and verbal disturbance between the man, who is now dead, and a woman happened at that apartment earlier that evening, the statement says.
The shooter, an upstairs neighbor, heard yelling in the apartment below him. He armed himself with a handgun and went downstairs to intervene. While in the stairwell between the two apartments, “a disturbance occurred that resulted in the decedent being fatally shot,” says the statement.
It does not go into detail about what happened between the two men in the stairwell.
Other people were nearby, but no one else reported injuries.
The investigation is ongoing, reportedly.
Another Deadly Shooting
It’s the second fatal shootout the city has seen in a month after 47-year-old Patrick Flores was killed by a Cheyenne police officer March 8.
CPD spokeswoman Alex Farkas did not immediately comment on the fact that this is the second fatal shooting in the city in less than a month.
Flores was killed in March after police responded to a report that he was firing a gun inside of his home while his wife screamed. When officers breached the front door of the home, they found Flores shooting his gun. They then returned fire.
Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation is conducting a third-party investigation into the officer-involved shooting incident.
After DCI completes its investigation, it will give its report to Laramie County District Attorney Sylvia Hackl, or to a special prosecutor assigned to the case.
The prosecutor will then review the report and decide if the officers are culpable in the suspect’s death.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information is available.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com and Ellen Fike can be reached at ellen@cowboystatedaily.com.
