Riverton Man Takes Gunshot Shrapnel While Confronting Suspected Burglars

RIVERTON — Bobby Watts chased two burglars away from a Riverton business he manages, helped deputies investigate, confronted one of the suspects on the road, and took some gunshot shrapnel to his upper arm Tuesday.

Then he started his normal workday.

The saga started at about 3:20 a.m. when Watts’ remote connection for the alarm at M&M Well Service woke him, he told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday interview.

He came up to the M&M building site on Burma Road just north of Riverton and found two male burglars and what he believed to be a getaway vehicle — a 2000s model Ford F-250. He chased the two men down and they fled.

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office later that day identified the suspected burglars as Kenneth Hebah, 18, and Kevin Pino, 32. They’re both in custody and charged with felonies.  

A third suspect, whom the undersheriff confirmed Thursday as still at large, was described as a female in a grey hooded sweatshirt.

Watts’ wife, the business secretary, also came up to the shop to meet with deputies and help them access security video. On her way to M&M, she noticed the suspected getaway vehicle, documented its license plate information and followed it to a trailer park, Watts recalled.

The Shaking Man

Meanwhile, Fremont County Sheriff’s Deputy Larry Holladay set out for Burma Road to respond to the burglary, but he didn’t have a description on either burglar at that point, says an evidentiary affidavit by FCSO Detective Sara Lowe filed Wednesday in Riverton Circuit Court.

Holladay encountered a male in a black hoodie, tan shorts with black pants under them, and black and white shoes walking south toward Riverton on Highway 789, the document says.

The man identified himself as Kenneth Hebah. He was wet, his hoodie and shorts were torn, and he was shaking visibly, says the affidavit.

But Holladay didn’t have a reason to hold him and had no description on the burglars, so he let the man go and proceeded to M&M Well Service.

On scene, Holladay reviewed the business’s video and recognized Hebah in it, Lowe wrote. The cameras captured Hebah both outside and inside the building. While inside, he went through drawers and took things, the document adds.

The affidavit says Holladay went back to the highway to find the man and located him within the hour — since a Shoshoni Police Department officer headed north on his way to work had encountered Hebah and was speaking to him.

Watts was still going through video recordings with deputies when Holladay brought Hebah back to the business, and Watts was able to go outside and identify the man, he recalled.

‘What’s In The Bucket?’

Also that morning, Watts sent his rig crew out to the barrow ditches to look for the many keys that had been taken to see if the men lost any of them out in the rural area as they fled.

Once employee pulled into the business property and announced that “there was one guy walking down the road with a bucket” said Watts.

Watts drove down in his red F-350 pickup to confront the man with the bucket. That was a green, 3-gallon Menard’s bucket that Watts said the burglars had found in the shop and used to gather numerous vehicle keys before they fled.

“What’s in the bucket?” Watts demanded of the man on the road, later identified as Pino.

“You don’t want to know,” answered Pino, according to Watts’ account.

“Yeah, I do want to know,” Watts countered.

The man with the bucket pulled out his .22-caliber pistol and raised it at Watts, the latter said.

Watts threw his truck in reverse and hammered the gas pedal, hoping he wouldn’t hit anything as he fled. He also ducked.

“As soon as I ducked, the bullet come through; he shot through the window,” Watts said. Where the bullet entered, “Should have been my face.”

Because it was only a .22-caliber, Watts believes the bullet fragmented when it hit the window, and only a shard of it “cauterized” his upper arm. Beads of lead embedded in his sweatshirt.

“I don’t know, it’s kind of weird looking,” said Watts with a laugh, speaking of his wound.

The sheriff’s office would later report that no one was shot directly, but that Watts was wounded by shrapnel.

Watts said he started calling other people in the area to warn them about the shooter. He also stopped off at a day care down the road and urged its operators to lock their doors, he recalled.

A sheriff’s deputy told Watts to get an ambulance, “but I wasn’t hurt bad,” he said.

Just What’s Going On Here?

Another local business man, Robert Dolcater, had also encountered Pino that morning.

The affidavit says Dolcater met Pino walking east on Burma Road and carrying that same green bucket.

Dolcater asked the man what was in the bucket.

“My jacket,” Pino answered, according to the affidavit.

Dolcater left Pino alone but later learned the man was suspected of robbing M&M Well Service.

Dolcater later went back on the road in his 2022 white GMC pickup to see what was going on after he saw Watts’ truck speeding backward on a series of country roads, according to court documents and Watts’ interview.

Just as Dolcater passed the intersection of Darnall and Burma roads, Pino shot three times at him. One bullet lodged in the front passenger side quarter panel of his truck, the affidavit says.

“The guy just kept shooting at anybody that was coming down the road,” said Watts.

A camper sat about 100 yards east of there in front of a home on Young Road.

Deputies later found Pino hiding under the camper.

He resisted arrest and was tased while deputies tried to pull him from the camper’s underside, says Lowe’s affidavit.

Investigators found the green Menard’s bucket in the front yard of another home on Young Road. It was full of keys taken from M&M stuffed under a black zip-up hoodie, the document says.

Deputies also found a black nylon handgun holster in the front yard of yet another nearby home on Young Road, and a .22-caliber revolver on a two-track dirt road across the canal.

“The bucket, revolver, holster and Pino were all found within 30 yards of each other,” wrote Lowe. “It appeared that once Pino discovered he was being sought by police and employees of M&M, he removed the handgun from its holster, attempted to throw it into a nearby ditch, dropped the holster, ran towards where he was found hidden, dropped the bucket and then hid under the camper.”

Still Hasn’t Been Found

Watts said the burglars took “every key they could get” while they were in the building Tuesday morning. They also took a .380-caliber pistol from an office drawer that “still hasn’t been found,” he said.

Watts said he believes the burglars brought the .22-caliber pistol to the scene themselves.

After what Watts characterized tongue-in-cheek as “just a fun time,” he went on with his normal duties.

“Oh, I’m good,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I was just fine that day. We worked the rest of the day.”

Centuries

Pino was convicted prior of aggravated assault, kidnapping and robbery out of Laramie County, Wyoming, noted Lowe.  

Because of that, he faces the potential for many more potential decades in prison.

He’s charged with:

• Attempted second-degree murder (punishable by between 20 years and life in prison).
• Aggravated burglary (between five and 25 years in prison and $50,000 in fines).
• A habitual criminal enhancement (10-50 years in prison).
• Aggravated assault (up to 10 years).
• Another habitual criminal enhancement (10-50 years).
• Aggravated assault (up to 10 years)
• Another habitual criminal enhancement (10-50 years).
• Using a firearm as a felon (up to three years and $5,000 in fines).
• Interfering with police (up to one year and $1,000 in fines).
• Criminal entry (up to six months in jail and $750 in fines).

Fremont County Chief Deputy Attorney Tim Hancock charged Pino on Wednesday.

Hancock also charged Hebah on Wednesday with one count of burglary, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

Both men face preliminary court hearings next Monday.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.