The Carbon County Sheriff’s Office deputy who was shot multiple times by a suspect in Baggs, Wyoming, on Monday remains in critical condition, but is improving, Sheriff Alex Bakken reports.
Sgt. Zach Burns was in the area Monday when dispatchers relayed information about a suspect in an active shooting incident, Bakken says in a Wednesday morning update on the event.
“Sergeant Burns located the suspect vehicle and initiated a traffic stop in front of a small apartment complex in Baggs,” Bakken says. “Upon coming to a stop, the suspect immediately exited his vehicle and opened fire on Sergeant Burns with a semiautomatic rifle.”
Burns took bullets to the neck, arm and hip, the sheriff says in the report.
The suspect — who so far has not been named by law enforcement but died later after another car chase — then went into the apartment building, the report says.
“The suspect proceeded to set fire to the apartment building before getting back in his vehicle and fleeing northbound on Highway 789,” Bakken wrote.
The sheriff also confirmed reports from Baggs residents who told Cowboy State Daily that neighbors of the apartment building rushed to help Burns.
“Residents of Baggs immediately rushed to provide aid to Sergeant Burns until EMS crews could arrive, providing cover and emergency wound treatment,” Bakken says in the report.
Burns was taken by helicopter ambulance “to a trauma center in Colorado, where he is expected to pull through,” the report says. “He remains in critical but improving condition.”
As for the suspect, he was “killed in a shootout with Carbon County deputies on Highway 789 after fleeing the scene,” the sheriff continued. “The investigation is ongoing and being conducted by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation.”
A Tuesday Cowboy State Daily message to the Carbon County Coroner’s Office requesting an identification and official cause of death for the suspect hasn’t been answered.
The Sweetwater County Bomb Squad arrives at the scene of a shooting incident in Baggs on Monday, June 8, 2026. (Greg Johnson, Cowboy State Daily) 
An apartment building where a reported active shooter incident began in Baggs on Monday, June 8, 2026. (Greg Johnson, Cowboy State Daily) 
WHP Trooper Also Took Fire, Not Hurt
During that shootout that ended in the death of the suspect, a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper also took gunfire, but wasn’t injured, the agency reports.
“Our thoughts, prayers and hopes go out to the wounded Carbon County deputy who was struck in the shooting yesterday in Baggs,” says the WHP’s Tuesday report.
“While responding to the incident, one of our troopers was fired upon,” it continues. “The trooper’s patrol vehicle was struck, but the trooper was not injured. He is currently at home with family.”
It’s not clear how many deputies or other law enforcement officers were involved in the shootout with the suspect or how many times the suspect was hit.
Linda Fleming, a lifelong Baggs resident who was the town’s mayor for a time in the 1980s, called Monday’s deadly shootouts “something tragic” that also highlights the hero spirit of first responders.
She also said that she’s not surprised Baggs residents rushed in to help Burns, possibly saving his life.
“The most immediate (heroes) were the neighbors who rallied for that deputy,” she told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday morning.
“It’s just what we do,” she continued. “We don’t have any local police, so people help and don’t give it a second thought.”
She also said that while violent episodes like Monday’s have become rare for Baggs, that wasn’t always the case.
“I was mayor in the ’80s when we had a pretty serious drug problem at that time,” Fleming said. “But we didn’t have anything like the shooting of a police officer.”
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information is available.
