A Carbon County Sheriff’s Office deputy remains in critical condition in a Colorado hospital days after taking bullets to the neck, arm and hip from an armed man in Baggs, Wyoming, who would later die in a shootout with law enforcement.
That Sgt. Zach Burns is alive at all is a miracle, said Baggs Mayor Matthew Howell, who lives next door to the apartment building Burns was responding to when he was shot Monday.
A deputy being shot, coupled with a high-speed chase and shootout with the suspect, is enough to make Monday one of the darkest days in the 116-year history of the tiny town of 411 people.
The way local residents rushed to save Burns’ life and maintain their composure during a daylong manhunt on lockdown also was one of the town’s best days, Howell said.
“It wasn’t a good thing that happened, but it was a great thing” in how people reacted, the mayor said.
Tragedy and conflict “really can bring out the best in people, and it really puts people here in a rural community like ours in a position to act like heroes,” he told Cowboy State Daily, adding that on Monday, that’s how they acted.
“Heroes are here,” Howell said. “I think the officer had a way better chance of making it through that (attack) because of the two people who rendered aid and slowed the bleeding down until the ambulance got there.
“If nobody had come to his aid, he probably wouldn’t be here now.”
That’s a sentiment shared by Wyoming state Rep. Bob Davis, R-Baggs, who said the suspect didn’t just shoot a deputy, he shot a member of the community and a friend.
“This particular officer, Zach Burns, he’s down there during the school hours patrolling the school zones,” Davis said on Thursday’s “Cowboy State Daily Show” with Jake Nichols. “For him to actually respond and basically … for somebody to shoot him was just unbelievable.”
‘Expected To Pull Through’
Burns was shot when he rolled up in response to a call of an active shooting at an apartment building near Wyoming Highway 789 near the south edge of the town, the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office has reported.
“Sergeant Burns located the suspect vehicle and initiated a traffic stop in front of a small apartment complex in Baggs,” Sheriff Alex Bakken said in the report. “Upon coming to a stop, the suspect immediately exited his vehicle and opened fire on Sergeant Burns with a semiautomatic rifle.”
Burns was struck in 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.
Carbon County Coroner Brittany Nyman told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday email that “all public information shall be released as part of the public docket at the conclusion of the investigation.”
“The suspect proceeded to set fire to the apartment building before getting back in his vehicle and fleeing northbound on Highway 789,” Bakken wrote.
He also called out the quick actions of locals who helped 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.
‘The Best In People’
In the rural Snake River Valley near Wyoming’s southern border with Colorado, most everyone knows each other, Davis said.
It also means life has its own pace and it’s hard for a significant event to happen without everyone knowing about it, he added.
“You wake up in the morning, and you never think of an active shooter situation occurring in your backyard, you know,” Davis said. “And basically, what it was … the person from what we understand just lived (in Baggs) and worked in the state to the south there.
“For whatever reason, (he) just got off his rocker, I guess.”
By Tuesday morning, the town looked like it always had, with the dozens of law enforcement officers from multiple agencies gone and people heading to work.
But the coffee talk has taken a break from politics, Davis said.
“They’re at the Cowboy Inn and the Stage Stop General Store, where you’ve got your little stools up there and the coffee pot’s always on,” he said. “What happened, I mean, it’s being discussed. The pipeline (is going) and brother-in-law called you and said this is going on, and your daughter’s working at the store and said this is going on.
“I’m sure you can check the rumor mill and find out 100 different scenarios going on.”
For his part, Howell said he’s impressed — but not surprised — with how Baggs responded during a dangerous, emergency situation.
“There wasn’t a single moment that the response wasn’t fluid,” he said, adding that if he had left for work 10 minutes earlier, he would’ve been right next to the scene of the shooting.
“I just don’t know how you get that lucky to get that many people to work together that quickly,” Howell said. “The first two people who rendered aid to the sheriff’s officer own two businesses here close to my house and were there very quick.”
Without them trying to stop Burns’ bleeding before EMS arrived — which also was within minutes — Howell said he thinks the sergeant would’ve bled out.
“It really does bring out the best in people, and it really puts people here in a rural community like ours — it makes it so special,” he said. “Whether they were the first person caring for the injured sheriff or just people trying to help with whatever they need to do, that’s just our community. That’s how it works.”
Davis said Baggs also was lucky to have so many emergency responders show up in a short time.
“Our hats have to be off to the first responders. I mean our local EMS, fire department,” he said. “When the gentleman torched the building again and went in before the high-speed chase happened — these are the heroes.”
A Spotfund online campaign has been set up for Burns and his family, which has raised nearly $42,000 by Friday afternoon.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
