RAWLINS — Six weeks ago, Carbon County Sheriff’s Sgt. Zach Burns was fighting for his life in the dirt parking lot of a Baggs apartment building after taking three bullets from a gunman who later died in a shootout with law enforcement.
Wednesday, he was discharged from a Colorado hospital and got a hero’s welcome as he was escorted roughly 230 miles home by a long procession of law enforcement representing agencies across two states.
Spots along Cedar and 3rd streets through downtown Rawlins were lined with pockets of people who paused their workdays to wave and yell as Burns was driven by with a loud chorus of sirens following.
“That doesn’t surprise me at all,” said local resident Deanna Deffenbaugh about the turnout. “We take care of our own around here.
“Anytime an officer has gotten hurt in the line of duty — even his family — we get the community involved to step up and help take care of them.”
Deffenbaugh said she doesn’t know the Burns family personally, “but that doesn’t matter. If they’re willing to put their lives at risk for us, we need to take care of them.”
Maybe Deffenbaugh doesn’t know Burns, his wife and two young children, but the folks at the Carbon County Courthouse do. He’s their courtroom bailiff, said Jo Rieger, who had staked out a small patch of shade along 3rd Street to wait for the procession.
“Woo-hoo. He’s coming home!” she shouted. “This is cool and very inspiring. He deserves it. He deserves the biggest hero’s welcome ever.”
For Micah Johnson, who also works with Burns at the courthouse, Wednesday was a far cry from June 8, when Burns took bullets in the neck, arm and hip.
“You fear the worst when you first hear about that, you know?” he said. “I think a lot of us were just waiting to hear any kind of piece of news, right? Then I saw the post that he’s coming home today.”
He was referring to a Facebook post Sheriff Alex Bakken made earlier Wednesday telling people that Burns had been discharged from a Colorado hospital and was on his way home.
At 3:31 p.m., the small groups stationed at street corners and in front of the Carbon Building on the corner of 3rd and Pine streets began to cheer as they heard the sirens blaring louder, along with a medical helicopter circling the procession.
“There he is. I see him,” said a woman in the crowd as a Carbon County Sheriff’s Office truck slowly passed.
Sergeant Burns was sitting in the passenger side with the window rolled down and enthusiastically waving to those who gathered for him.
His beaming smile got just a little bit bigger when he saw a giant red, white and blue “Welcome Home Zach” banner.
‘We’re All Family’
About an hour earlier, Valeta Rogabaugh was anxious for the procession to get to Rawlins.
The longtime dispatch supervisor for the Rawlins Police Department walked into the bullpen at the department with tears in her eyes.
She had just heard a county dispatch bulletin that Burns and the procession had “come home” and had just passed into Carbon County on westbound Interstate 80.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said when Chief Michael Ward asked how she was holding up. “It’s just emotional. They even talked to (Burns’ wife) and told her welcome home too.”
Although Burns works for the county sheriff’s office, there are deep connections with the Rawlins PD and other agencies, she said.
“We’re all a team and we’re all family,” Rogabaugh said, adding that Burns’ wife also is a dispatcher for the sheriff’s office.
There are no lines between agencies, said Rawlins Police Sgt. Thom Gamblin, adding that he’s good friends with Burns.
“This isn’t just a guy in uniform coming home, he’s a guy who works and lives here. I’m saying that this is a community, this is home, and it isn’t just his workplace,” Gamblin said.
“This isn’t just his work office, it’s people who love him,” he continued. “These are the people who care for him. It’s the people he meets every day when he serves.”
There’s a reason close to 100 officers from multiple jurisdictions around Wyoming and Colorado responded to Baggs that afternoon when the bulletin went out about an officer down and a gunman was on the run, Gamblin said.
“This is personal,” he said. “He did his job and nearly lost his life over it. He didn’t — thankfully — and now he’s back here where we can protect him.”
Without the quick action of a pair of Baggs residents who immediately attended to Burns, he likely would have died, said Chief Ward. Wednesday’s procession was for them as well.
“They’re heroes, too,” he told Cowboy State Daily.
“It’s a miracle that he’s still with us,” Ward added. “All of us are grateful for that, every minute of every day. His daughter still has a father. His wife still has a husband. He’s still with all of us.
“We could not be more relieved, grateful and excited he’s coming home today.”
Stopped ‘Large-Scale Act’
The scope of the potential carnage Burns may have prevented unfolded in the days following, Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken has said.
That includes Burns interrupting the suspect carrying out what appeared to be a devastating plan, the sheriff said
The man had a stockpile of semiautomatic weapon ammunition in his Baggs apartment and was likely planning a "large-scale act," Bakken reported June 17.
Burns was in the area June 8 when dispatchers relayed information about a suspect in an active shooting incident. Burns located the suspect driving in town and conducted a traffic stop at his apartment, the CCSO has reported.
“Upon coming to a stop, the suspect immediately exited his vehicle and opened fire on Sergeant Burns with a semiautomatic rifle,” Bakken said in the report.
The suspect — who so far has not been publicly identified — then went into the apartment building, the report says.
The suspect tried to start his apartment complex on fire with numerous propane tanks inside, then sped away in his car again, according to the CCSO.
He was eventually killed in a shootout with law enforcement after crashing his car north of town off state Highway 789.
“Thanks to his bravery, (Burns) saved the lives of countless first responders and community members,” Bakken says in the report. “The gunman had stockpiled hundreds of AR-15 magazines in his apartment and, by all appearances, had been prepared to initiate a large-scale act of violence.”
‘On The Scale Of Heroism …’
At the Hilltop Conoco station along Cedar Avenue, Paige Garwood and Heather Stalinski were working Wednesday afternoon, handling a steady stream of locals and visitors driving through just off I-80.
They both said they were excited to learn that the long procession of emergency responders for Burns would go past their station.
Neither knows Burns or his family, but both said that Rawlins is a small town, and when one person is in trouble, everyone knows and responds.
“I’ve been reading about him and heard what happened to him. He’s a hero,” said Stalinski. “That he’s coming home is really good, and great for his family, his wife.
“I think he was really brave for what he did. He’s a brave, brave man. I think she should get a lot of (accolades). Would I call him a hero? Absolutely.”
Garwood said that Burns getting out of the hospital and getting back to Rawlins is a great boost for the whole town.
“I think it’s great that he’s coming home, because he almost died because of that idiot,” she said. “He deserves it.”
For Chief Ward and other law enforcement officers, the risk is always there, he said. While running toward danger while others run from it is what they sign up for, the hope is that they won’t have to.
“He took an oath to protect our community, and he almost gave his life doing so,” Ward said about Burns. “On the scale of heroism, that’s pretty far up there.”
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
