Wyoming’s federal prosecutor’s office has declined to prosecute a federal police officer in a 2022 officer-involved shooting involving alleged hostages and a BB pistol.
Ethete man Terrance Skye Posey, 33, died of multiple gunshot wounds the evening of Aug. 11, 2022, after a Bureau of Indian Affairs officer stationed on the Wind River Indian Reservation shot him during a crime response.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office released a statement Thursday announcing its decision not to prosecute the officer following Cowboy State Daily requests for comment.
The BB Pistol
A BIA officer was dispatched to Posey’s home because two people called asking for help, saying Posey threatened them with a knife and was outside with a BB gun, says the Thursday statement.
The callers were still in the home asking for help when the officer arrived. The officer knocked at the front door. Through a window in the door, he saw Posey approach, says the statement.
The officer asked Posey to come outside.
Posey refused, told the officer to go away and disappeared into the home, the statement says.
Inside the home, people yelled that they were locked in a bedroom.
The statement says Posey returned to the door and pointed a weapon at the officer.
“From the officer’s perspective, the weapon appeared virtually identical to a semiautomatic handgun,” the statement reads.
The officer reportedly ordered Posey to drop the weapon, but Posey kept pointing it at the officer, tracking him as he moved.
“Believing that Posey intended to shoot him with the weapon, and being unable to determine it was not a firearm, the officer shot Mr. Posey through the door,” the statement says. “When investigators inspected Posey’s weapon, they determined that it was not a firearm, but rather was a BB gun that looked very much like a firearm.”
The prosecutor’s statement says the FBI thoroughly investigated this incident.
Beyond A Reasonable Doubt
Federal prosecutors say they applied legal principles and the official principles of federal prosecution and decided not to bring criminal charges because the evidence was insufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer acted outside of a reasonable belief that force was necessary to defend against an immediate threat of death or great bodily harm.
The evidence also was insufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer violated Posey’s constitutional right against unreasonable force, the statement says.
“After deciding that no criminal charges should be filed, federal authorities notified Mr. Posey’s family of this decision,” it concludes.
The statement also includes a photograph of a black BB pistol with no orange markings on it.
Posey’s blood had an alcohol content of 0.323% and a methamphetamine concentration of 42 nanograms per milliliter of blood at the time of his death, according to the coroner’s docket.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
