Initial findings suggest that a Riverton woman who shot her ex-boyfriend before dawn on Saturday acted in self-defense, according to the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office.
The office announced Monday that at about 2:50 a.m. Saturday, a 24-year-old male broke into his 31-year-old ex-girlfriend’s home east of Riverton and attacked her current boyfriend, who is also 24.
Watching the struggle, the woman believed that her ex-boyfriend was determined to kill her current boyfriend, the announcement stated.
As a result, the woman shot her ex-boyfriend through the arm, and the bullet lodged in his ribcage area, Fremont County Undersheriff Mike Hutchison told Cowboy State daily.
“She retrieved a pistol and felt she had no choice but to use deadly force to stop the violent attack and to protect herself and (her current boyfriend),” reads FSO’s statement.
The ex-boyfriend was taken by ambulance to SageWest Health Care of Riverton but has since been flown out of the area “with serious injuries,” the report said.
Hutchison told Cowboy State Daily that the current boyfriend also has injuries but they are not serious.
The ex-boyfriend, Hutchison said, was not armed at the moment he was shot.
The incident is still under investigation, but initial findings “support the female’s claim of self-defense,” the statement said.
In Wyoming, the use of force is justified in cases of self-defense and also to protect someone else in the immediate area who is believed to be in serious or mortal danger.
