Editor's note: Cowboy State Daily managing editor Greg Johnson is in Baggs and will update the story when new information is available.
BAGGS — It was a busier-than-usual Monday at the Cowboy Inn Restaurant, Bar and Motel along Wyoming Highway 789 near the southern edge of town, which in this hamlet of 411 people near the Colorado border is about a two-minute drive from the northern end.
Across the highway, more than a dozen law enforcement vehicles were parked on the shoulder of the southbound lane. They represented nearly as many agencies from across central and southern Wyoming and northern Colorado.
They’ve all responded to a small, faded yellow, two-story apartment building that’s cordoned off with crime scene tape, along with a couple of nearby houses.
They’d been there since about noon, responding to reports of an active shooter at the apartment building and a brief search for the suspect, according to a “shelter in place” order sent to area residents that said authorities were looking for an “active assailant.”
Before the Carbon County emergency services scanner went dark Monday, law enforcement personnel described the active shooter incident and manhunt, where at least one law enforcement officer was injured and a trooper’s car was “shot up.”
For Baggs Mayor Matthew Howell, that was the beginning of a long waiting game. He told Cowboy State Daily at about 7:15 p.m. Monday that his home is near the apartment building and that he wasn’t yet allowed back.
Earlier in the day, he described the situation to Cowboy State Daily simply as “it’s not good,” and declined to comment further, saying he wanted to wait until the initial investigation was over to know just what went down before possibly talking out of turn.
He reiterated that response later in the day and deferred further questions to investigators.
Hanging Out
Howell was one of dozens hanging out near and in the Cowboy Inn parking lot throughout Monday afternoon and evening.
There was only one topic of conversation: whatever happened in that apartment and how unusual it is for a law enforcement response this heavy in their quiet, small town.
“Oh yeah, this is for sure the most exciting thing that’s happened in … I can’t remember,” said one longtime resident eating a burger and fries from the tailgate of a pickup.
Like most people Cowboy State Daily spoke with, she declined to give and name, but was friendly and upbeat while gazing across the highway with concern.
At about 7 p.m., the parade of law enforcement vehicles cordoning off the apartment property from the highway parted to make way for a large trailer with “Sweetwater County Bomb Squad” printed on it.
Initial Response
By 9 p.m., there still hadn’t been any official reports about what happened or confirmation of the earlier emergency scanner traffic that reported an injured law officer.
That scanner traffic erupted at about 12:55 p.m. when a female dispatcher informed units that a “lady” had called to report a man emerged from a home near or about 49 West Cedar Street.
“He came out of the house with a long gun, fired a shot, and now he’s walking around trying to get into an apartment,” the female dispatcher related from the caller’s report. “RP (reporting party) says he has tactical equipment on.”
The male had red hair, a mustache, no shirt, and green camo pants, the dispatcher related. She’d later add from a secondhand description that he had a fanny pack containing ammunition.
A Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper who called himself “132” said he was on his way.
“He’s gone into apartment No. 1, and now he came out and he’s heading back upstairs,” the dispatcher narrated.
The man still had a gun, she added.
The reports continued, relating that the man fled north in a pickup and at one point was “now shooting at the patrol vehicle.”
In the meantime, the bar at the Cowboy Inn was lively with chatter about the “active assailant” incident, mostly starting with, “I heard …” as officers and personnel from various sheriff’s and police departments filtered in and out.
By closing time — which in Baggs comes at 8:30 — the scene across the road hadn’t changed much.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
