By CJ Baker, Powell Tribune
A Cody woman is in custody after she allegedly brandished and fired a pistol during a Wednesday dispute with her mother and teenage child. Cody police say the bullet was fired “toward” the suspect’s mother and went into a neighbor’s garage.
Carolyn Wood is facing five criminal charges — four felonies and a misdemeanor — in connection with last week’s incident in Cody. As of Monday, the 34-year-old remained in custody at the Park County Detention Center, with bail set at $25,000 pending further proceedings.
The Park County Attorney’s Office had asked Circuit Court Judge Bruce Waters to set bond at $50,000, citing the serious nature of the charges and concerns about Wood’s mental health.
At her Friday court appearance, Wood insisted that she had not shot at her mother. Amid sobs, Wood said she had pointed the gun at her own head and then toward the ground.
“I would never hurt anyone — ever,” she said.
Charging documents allege that Wood became upset after a family member picked her 13-year-old child up from school. The teenager was sick and had to go home, Wood’s mother reportedly told police, but school officials were unable to reach Wood; her mother then arranged for another family member to get the child.
A couple hours later, however, around 2:30 p.m., Wood showed up at her mother’s nearby residence. She reportedly began yelling at, berating and threatening her mother and child.
According to Wood’s mother, “Wood was also waving the gun around and pointed the gun at [her mother] and at or near [her child],” Cody Police Det. Sgt. Trapp Heydenberk wrote in an affidavit used to support the charges.
Wood ultimately fired a shot “toward” her mother before returning to her apartment, Heydenberk wrote, while leaving the gun in a camouflage bag beside her car.
Cody Regional Health
Personnel from the Cody Police Department, Park County Sheriff’s Office and the Wyoming Highway Trooper responded to Wood’s apartment complex in the 1700 block of 18th Street around 2:36 p.m. Wednesday. Within about 20 minutes, Wood exited her apartment and was arrested.
At Wood’s initial appearance in Circuit Court on Friday morning, Deputy Park County Attorney Jack Hatfield said Wood pointed a gun at her mother and son, made threats and “then decided to take a shot at her mother.” Combined with concerns about Wood’s mental health — not only from Wednesday’s shooting but from an unspecified February incident — Hatfield said he believed the defendant was “a serious public safety hazard.”
However, while the prosecutor was speaking, Wood loudly interjected that, “I did not take a shot at my mom.”
Judge Waters encouraged the defendant to exercise her right to remain silent, and Wood responded that, “I wouldn’t shoot anyone.”
“Oh, I didn’t see anything in the affidavit that suggests that’s what you were doing,” Waters offered.
Prosecutors have filed three counts of aggravated assault and battery: one alleges Wood attempted to injure her mother with a deadly weapon; another alleges she threatened her mother with a drawn, deadly weapon; and a third alleges that Wood threatened to use a drawn deadly weapon on her 13-year-old child.
She also faces a felony count of possessing a deadly weapon with unlawful intent and a misdemeanor count of property destruction for the damage to the neighboring garage.
Waters has tentatively scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case for Friday.
