CASPER — A juvenile male is in serious but stable condition at Banner Wyoming Medical Center in Casper after a shooting at a party early Saturday morning on the northeast side of the city.
It’s the latest in a series of violent assaults and killings of and by young people in Casper this year.
Casper Police Department spokeswoman Amber Freestone said officers responded at 12:30 a.m. Saturday to a a “traumatic injury” call in the 3200 block of Hamilton Way.
“Officers arrived and found a chaotic scene with multiple juveniles and young adults including a juvenile with an apparent life-threatening gunshot wound,” she said. “Officers and additional first responders immediately offered aid to the victim who was transported by emergency medical services.”
Investigators and officers were able to identify, locate and interview a suspect in the shooting, who is also a juvenile, Freestone said. Evidence from the scene was collected while involved parties and witnesses were interviewed, the investigation is ongoing at this time.
Freestone said the incident involved a Halloween party and people who allegedly showed up uninvited.
Freestone would not release the sex or ages of those involved. When asked if the shooting suspect was arrested, she referred Cowboy State Daily to the state of Wyoming Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act that restricts release of juvenile information.
The Natrona County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately return a request for comment.
Male Victim
Casper YMCA sports director and local youth pastor DC Martinez said he’s aware of the shooting and knows it was a teenage male who was shot. Martinez said a young man who works at the YMCA is close to the victim.
Martinez said he also knows the victim from summer basketball games.
“Unfortunately, the young man who got shot I had been speaking to him about the general anger, the taking of a simple situation and saying, ‘I need to fight you,’” he said.
Wednesday church youth groups in the city are getting together at the YMCA to pray over their schools, and there are efforts at Fellowship of Christian Athletes huddles to talk about the violence and pray for the youth of the city, Martinez said.
Martinez helped launch the Blue Heart Collaborative in the city targeting at-risk youth earlier this year following a fatal stabbing of a teen by other teens at the city’s mall. He said the organization continues to move forward with plans to go to where the youth are and try to bring change to the community.
“It unfortunately is an issue that will continue to keep growing until we actually get out into the neighborhood and reach these kids that are being sold a certain narrative by the videos they watch,” he said.
Martinez said the teens are trying to emulate what they see in big city gangs.
The latest shooting follows the fatal stabbing of 14-year-old Robert “Bobby” Maher Jr. on April 7 at the city’s mall by two 15-year-olds, Jarreth Plunkett and Dominique Harris; also the May 14 fatal shooting of Lenae Brown, 17, by her ex-boyfriend Eavan Castaner, who was 15 at the time.
A 15-year-old boy, Marquis Hayman also faces charges related to shooting up a mobile home on Aug. 14 with people inside. He reportedly said afterward, “I hope I killed one.”
And in another case, 19-year-old Jeremy David Lakey of Cheyenne on Aug. 31 allegedly pistol whipped a 21-year-old Casper man he had been drinking with.
Casper Mayor Steve Cathey said he was unaware of Saturday’s shooting and personally thinks that, “We have a juvenile population that is out of control.”
Cathey said the City Council remains focused on trying to bring organizations together in the city that work with youth to try and get a handle on the violence and youth suicides that are happening in the region and get them “pointed in same direction.”
“We're working on that,” he said.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
