Wolfe Willow, the man shot by a U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs officer Monday on the Wind River Indian Reservation, is recovering in a Riverton hospital from a gunshot wound.
Willow was shot during a domestic altercation that devolved into a knife fight, he told Cowboy State Daily.
Willow, 36, was in the intensive-care unit of SageWest Health Care in Riverton on Wednesday, where a Cowboy State Daily reporter surveyed his bandaged side and other bandaged areas Willow called “stab wounds” resulting from the family fight preceding the shooting.
The FBI had confirmed Tuesday that a BIA officer “fired his weapon” on the reservation and the FBI is investigating the incident.
The agency offered “no further information” from the investigation, but stated it would provide the “facts of the shooting” to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Wyoming for review.
Acting U.S. Attorney Bob Murray, an appointed federal prosecutor, will have final discretion on whether the shooting was justified.
In an interview with Cowboy State Daily, Willow said he and his girlfriend’s family had been drinking together since noon Monday, when “her cousins showed up.”
Willow said a knife fight ensued, he gained control of one of the knives.
Police came to the scene just before 3 p.m., Willow said, and soon after, an agent shot him.
Scanner traffic at the time indicated an officer had shot a man who was wielding a knife.
Both Willow and his mother stated that Willow had served as a U.S. Marine. He also told Cowboy State Daily he suspected his girlfriend’s family disliked him “because I’m a sex offender.”
Willow had been sentenced to 36 months of federal incarceration in 2011 for abusive sexual contact.
He said that he suffers post-traumatic stress disorder and was suffering from flashbacks just prior to the incident.
