Former Thermopolis Police Sergeant Claims He Can't Be Sued For Fatal Shootout

The Thermopolis Police Department and a sergeant who used to work for it are denying wrongdoing in a lawsuit stemming from the sergeant breaking into a suspect’s house and triggering a fatal shootout with him two years ago.

The Thermopolis Police Department and former Sgt. Mike Mascorro, who resigned in May, both filed responses Monday to a federal wrongful-death lawsuit the late Buck Laramore’s family filed in April.

Both filings ask the case judge to dismiss the lawsuit altogether.

The police department’s response denies wrongdoing.

Mascorro’s response filing also denies the sergeant acted wrongly and asserts that Mascorro is entitled to qualified immunity for his actions as a law officer.

Qualified immunity is a legal defense that protects law enforcement officers from being sued in their individual capacities as long as they didn’t violate a “clearly established” right of the person on whose behalf the lawsuit is filed.

“This defendant asserts he is entitled to qualified immunity … (and) his acts were within the course and scope of his duties and all actions were privileged and authorized by law,” says Mascorro’s answer. “His actions were taken in good faith and were objectively reasonable.”

The Shootout

Mascorro broke into Laramore’s Thermopolis home without a warrant April 28, 2023, to arrest Laramore, 33, on suspicion of misdemeanor police interference for giving Mascorro inaccurate information during a drug investigation at the local McDonald’s restaurant earlier that day.

Laramore shot Mascorro through the lung. The sergeant returned fire, killing Laramore.

Months later, special prosecutor Dan Erramouspe determined that Mascorro was not criminally chargeable for homicide because of a provision of state law protecting police officers on the job, even when they act outside the law.

But Mascorro entered Laramore’s home illegally in the first place, Erramouspe concluded.

Laramore’s wife Brandi Laramore and mother Debra Laramore in April filed a lawsuit against the Thermopolis Police Department, and Mascorro in his individual capacity, in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming.

Composed by Jack D. Edwards of Edwards Law Office, the women’s civil complaint asks for a jury trial, for money damages against the department and Mascorro — including punitive, or punishing damages — attorney’s fees, post- and pre-judgment interest and any other relief “justice may require.”

The police department and Mascorro in their recent filings say the family isn’t entitled to those damages, and that punitive damages would violate Mascorro’s and the department’s own rights.

Kay Lynn Bestol of Cheyenne-based Sundahl, Powers, Kapp & Martin filed Mascorro’s answer, and Local Government Liability Pool attorney Thomas Rumpke filed the department’s answer.

Bestol was busy Tuesday in depositions, her office said, and did not immediately respond to a Tuesday inquiry about whether she serves Mascorro via a public or private contract. 

DCI Report

The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation report from the shooting compiles witness interviews, bodycam footage and physical evidence.

It concludes that Mascorro broke into Buck Laramore’s home to arrest the man for the misdemeanor of interfering with a police officer because Laramore had lied about his surname spelling and age earlier on the date of the fatality, April 28, 2023.

Mascorro was investigating the presence of meth at the McDonald’s where Laramore worked.

Laramore was the last person to exit the McDonald’s men’s bathroom right before Mascorro and a sheriff’s deputy found meth in it.

One witness described Laramore’s behavior as “shifty.”

Mascorro patted Laramore down, questioned him, tried to get him to give a urine sample and disclose his address, the report says. Health authorities shut the restaurant down and personnel started cleaning it.

Laramore left the McDonald’s before his shift was officially over.

“Don’t five (sic) them my address without a warrant this is ridiculous,” Laramore texted a coworker soon after leaving the restaurant, according to the DCI report.

He sent another text one minute later: “And I left without clocking out and the m aching (sic) needs aired out I was tired of getting harassed over something that had nothing to do with me.”

Police were investigating the restaurant in the first place because about a week prior, they had arrested McDonald’s employee Derrick Collins on a local warrant and allegedly found him in possession of a meth pipe, the report says. Collins claimed the pipe belonged to a coworker.

Laramore went home to his double-wide mobile home on Canyon Hills drive, and laid down in bed with his wife Brandi Laramore for a nap, the wife later told a DCI agent.

She woke to the sound of someone “pounding on the door.”

She went to the door and found Mascorro there, saying he had come to arrest Laramore for impeding his investigation, the report relates.

‘No Sir’

Buck Laramore came to the door after his wife answered it.

Mascorro told Buck Laramore to come outside and talk.

“No sir,” answered Laramore.

Either Laramore would come out willingly or Mascorro would break the door down, the sergeant said after a back-and-forth, reportedly.

Laramore then told Mascorro his true surname spelling and date of birth, then shut his front door and deadbolted it.

Dead Bolt Shot Into Home

Mascorro pulled the storm door open and rammed the locked wooden door with his left shoulder. He then switched to his right shoulder and rammed the front door twice.

“Stop!” yelled Brandi Laramore.

Mascorro rammed with his right shoulder again, damaging the door, breaking the doorjamb and sending the deadbolt flying toward the kitchen threshold inside the home, the report indicates.

Mascorro pulled the front door shut behind him.

Just then, Buck Laramore gripped a .45 pistol in both hands, aimed it directly at Mascorro and fired one time, dropping Mascorro to the ground.

The bullet entered through Mascorro’s right bicep, passed into his chest near his armpit, glanced off a rib to dodge his heart, wounded his lung and exited through his back just to the left of his spine. The bullet came to rest lodged between his flesh and his clothing, the report indicates.

It felt like a sledgehammer blow, Mascorro later told a DCI agent.

Laramore advanced on Mascorro as Mascorro pleaded “stop, stop,” the report continues.

Bullets flew past the bodycam viewer.

Those bullets were from Mascorro’s gun, which he drew and fired about seven times after getting shot, the investigation would later reveal.

Mascorro’s wounds squirted blood into view and dribbled it down his right arm.

Reflecting on that moment in his interview 12 days later, Mascorro told a DCI agent he didn’t know why Laramore didn’t shoot him in the head just then.

Show Your Hands

Mascorro started walking backward into the kitchen, telling dispatch shots had been fired. He gripped his own pistol in his left hand, maintaining cover on the doorway to the room from which Buck Laramore had emerged.

Brandi Laramore screamed frantically.

Around this time, Brandi Laramore later told an investigator, she rushed her dog and herself to safety in the bathroom.

Laramore then eased around the bedroom’s doorjamb, exposing a sliver of his upper body.

Mascorro fired one round.

Laramore’s body had “an obvious reaction,” indicating a hit.

One second later, Mascorro fired again, dropping Laramore to the floor just inside the bedroom.

Two more seconds passed. Mascorro fired a third round.

“Stop, stop,” pleaded Buck Laramore.

Mascorro commanded the man to show his hands.

Breathe In

Still in the kitchen, Mascorro fell to his hands and knees. His right hand slipped in his own blood, dropping him onto his stomach. His pistol slipped from his left hand, slid toward the kitchen cabinets and came to a rest.

Mascorro stood again and again he fell, catching himself on the kitchen counter and leaving bloody handprint smears along it.

“Move,” he said when he tried to get past Brandi Laramore, who was standing in the hallway, the report says.

“What are you doing?” Brandi Laramore asked him.

Mascorro fumbled for the back door. He couldn’t get the back storm door open and he fell down backwards onto the floor while trying.

Brandi Laramore stood over him and screamed.

Mascorro fought for breath.

Brandi Laramore withdrew from Mascorro, still screaming, the report indicates.

“Shots fired, shots fired, shots fired, I need help, I’m down, I’ve been shot, help,” Mascorro said into his radio.

He sat up, scooted out the back storm door and slid off the side of the unrailed back metal stairs onto his feet. He walked away from the home toward his patrol vehicle.

Sirens sounded outside.

Meanwhile in the home, Brandi Laramore checked on her husband and believed he was dying, a summary of her later interview relates.

‘Right There,’ Said The Neighbor Kid

Mascorro collapsed to the ground between a pickup with a bed camper and a Saturn car.

Deputy Shayna Cox arrived on scene and got out of her vehicle.

A kid stood near the trailer.

“Where is he?” Cox asked the kid.

The kid pointed to where Mascorro lay. “Right there,” he answered.

Mascorro’s face was pale and his body gushed blood. Cox went to him, pulled him to a position of “better cover,” and put a tourniquet on his right arm. Taking off his vest and shirt, she found his chest wound and applied pressure to it.

When an ambulance arrived, Cox grabbed her rifle and joined Hot Springs County Sheriff Jerimie Kraushaar in the trailer house.

There she saw Brandi Laramore, face-down and handcuffed. Kraushaar told Cox to radio dispatch to announce that Buck Laramore was dead in the home.

“He’s dying in here,” said Brandi Laramore. “I don’t know what happened.”

Mascorro was rushed to care and returned to Thermopolis amid a hero's welcome days later.

The Home

Law enforcement reportedly recovered meth from the home, ranging from a finding of a trace amount — 0.1 gram on a piece of foil — to 7.2 grams in plastic baggies, the report says.

The report says agents also found 1 gram of suspected marijuana in plant form and four cellphones, one of which was Brandi Laramore’s.

The other three phones were Buck Laramore’s, Brandi Laramore later told DCI.

DCI Special Agent Kiel Holder asked Mascorro during their later interview why he’d used deadly force.

Mascorro said he was certain at the time that Laramore was about to kill him and felt there was no other choice.

Holder asked if there were other officers working in the area at that time who could have gone to the home with Mascorro and helped him.

Mascorro said he was the only patrol officer on shift for his department during the incident. He knew Deputy Shaina Cox was working for the sheriff’s department that day, but he’d already asked for her help and had taken up a lot of her time, he said.

“It’s the nature of this job,” he added.

About Breaking In

Holder asked Mascorro what authority he claimed for going into Laramore’s home.

Mascorro said he had authority to arrest Laramore for the misdemeanor committed in his presence. He also believed that when Laramore slammed the door in his face, he committed the new crime of resisting arrest and gave Mascorro the right of “fresh pursuit” to complete the arrest.

Erramouspe in his prosecutorial decision letter disagreed with this reasoning.

The decision says Mascorro didn’t have authority to arrest Laramore without a warrant for a misdemeanor charge hours after the offense, unless Mascorro had probable cause to believe Laramore would skip town, escape altogether, injure people or property, or destroy or conceal evidence.

“There’s no evidence other than this assumption by Mascorro to indicate that Laramore would essentially quit his job, pack up his belongings, leave the area, possibly defaulting on his home lease, just to avoid a possible misdemeanor interference charge for allegedly lying to law enforcement,” wrote the prosecutor.

Erramouspe indicated other factors were in play.

“The body cam evidence is clear that Laramore refusing to submit to the drug test or give his address bothered Mascorro,” reads the prosecutor’s decision. “Mascorro even disregards (a county deputy attorney’s) suggestion that he just write Laramore a citation, advising hours after his interaction with Laramore that he was going to arrest him.”

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