Officer Who Set Off Fatal Shootout Gives Up Certification, Can’t Be A Wyoming Cop

The former Thermopolis police sergeant who triggered a fatal shootout when he unlawfully entered a suspect’s home surrendered his policing certification in Wyoming on Thursday, with the unanimous approval of the state’s police oversight board.

Sgt. Mike Mascorro resigned from the Thermopolis Police Department in May, two years after the April 28, 2023, incident in which he unlawfully entered the home of Buck Laramore, 33, whom Mascorro suspected of committing misdemeanor police interference.

Laramore was in his home and shot Mascorro through the lung.

Mascorro returned fire, killing Laramore.

A provision of Wyoming law protecting police officers acting within their duties — though not necessarily within the law — kept Mascorro from being charged in Laramore’s death, according to a special prosecutor’s September 2023 decision letter on the matter.

Mascorro’s resignation, a civil lawsuit against him and now his Wyoming police decertification all followed.

Mascorro reached a settlement agreement with the Wyoming Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST), according to POST Director Robert Terry.

POST is a state-level agency that oversees police certification status and discipline.

Cleared By Agency

The agency investigated Mascorro prior to the 2023 incident, and cleared him from being decertified via multiple, prior use-of-force complaints.

POST received complaints in 2023 stemming from the Laramore incident, Terry said, and an attorney from the Wyoming Attorney General’s office “prosecuted” Mascorro for those.

Though POST uses the term prosecution, it’s a civil process, Terry clarified.

“It should be noted, too, Mascorro denies any wrongdoing,” Terry related from the Thursday POST meeting. “It’s a simple (certification) surrender.”

All seven POST commissioners attended the meeting, and all seven voted in favor of Mascorro’s decertification, which is now effective in Wyoming.

Kay Lynn Bestol, who is representing Mascorro in a federal civil lawsuit Laramore’s family filed against him in April, did not immediately return a phone message request for comment.

Jack Edwards, who is suing Mascorro and the Thermopolis Police Department on behalf of Laramore’s wife and mother, lauded the maneuver in a Friday phone interview.

"I think that is a a good outcome," said Edwards. "He has a track record that has been extremely questionable, and law enforcement is not a good profession for him."

The lawsuit accuses the department and former sergeant of violating the law to cause Laramore’s wrongful death.

Mascorro, conversely, asserts that qualified immunity should keep him from being sued.

The 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 that day while Mascorro investigated the presence of meth at the McDonald’s restaurant 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 earlier that day, April 28, 2023.

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.”

That coworker told a DCI investigator that she hadn’t known Laramore to do drugs, and that they had worked together for a while, including at a restaurant in Lander where they both lived prior.

She spoke highly of both Laramore and Mascorro, saying the sergeant had been “nothing but helpful with us.”

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 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.

Brandi Laramore 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’

The front storm door was white metal and glass. It had no handle, but its front glass allowed for reaching through it and pulling it open. There was a wooden door just behind it, slightly ajar.

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

Mascorro told Buck Laramore to come outside and talk.

“No sir,” answered Laramore.

Mascorro then told Laramore he was going to jail, and Laramore asked why.

Mascorro repeated said he was willing to break the door down, if Laramore “made” him, the report relates from Mascorro’s bodycam footage.

Laramore again asked why he was going to jail. Mascorro said he’d interfered with his investigation.

Either Laramore would come out willingly or Mascorro would break the door down, the sergeant said, 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, who is reportedly left-hand dominant, 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, gripping 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 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, and Mascorro fired a third round.

“Stop, stop,” pleaded Laramore.

Mascorro commanded Laramore 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.

Hero’s Welcome

DCI Special Agent Pete McCall went to the hospital in Thermopolis to speak with Mascorro. There, Thermopolis Police Department Officer Jessica Araiza gave Mascorro’s things to McCall – including one spent bullet hospital staff had recovered.

McCall waited around for Mascorro to gain steady consciousness to give what the report calls a “public safety interview” regarding how many shots were fired and in what directions.

Eventually, hospital staff said Mascorro could talk, though he had received several doses of medication.

McCall asked Mascorro how many shots he’d fired.

He believed three, the police sergeant answered.

McCall asked how many people were involved.

Just himself and one other male, Mascorro answered. Then he lost consciousness.

Emergency flight personnel flew Mascorro to the Wyoming Medical Center in Casper.

Five days later, Mascorro returned to Thermopolis and received a “hero’s welcome” parade.

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.

Yes, Several Times

DCI Special Agent Kiel Holder, the lead investigator on the case, interviewed Mascorro at 10:30 a.m. May 10 in Thermopolis.

Mascorro agreed to speak and brought his attorney, John Worrall.

Holder asked Mascorro if he’d reviewed his bodycam footage from April 28.

Mascorro said he’d reviewed the trailer park footage many times and that he reviewed the video from the McDonald’s inspection at least once.

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.

Sweetwater County Attorney Danny Erramouspe, who was the case’s special prosecutor, disagreed with this reasoning in his decision letter.

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.