The man who was shot to death Friday in an alley in Pinedale, Wyoming, was a 67-year-old local man from a community known as Bargerville, the coroner says.
Paul Browning, 67, died of a single gunshot wound to the chest in the manner of “homicide,” Sublette County Coroner Curt Covill told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.
The gunshot wound appeared to have been inflicted from about 2 or 3 feet away, the coroner said, adding that Browning had no other injuries.
Covill was driving back from Browning’s autopsy during his phone interview.
When coroners rule a death as a homicide, the term includes any death in which a person’s actions kill another person, but it doesn’t assume criminal culpability. The duty remains for law enforcement and prosecutors to determine if homicides are criminal, accidental or justified.
In this case, the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office is investigating self-defense as a “possible” factor in the shooting, Sublette County Sheriff K.C. Lehr told Cowboy State Daily on Friday. He also said investigators have questioned the shooter.
Death investigators pulled toxicology information but won’t have those results back for around four weeks, Covill said.
Pinedale was a busy place Friday, as a rendezvous-style festival had scheduled near-hourly events through the weekend.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
