Neighbor says Sheridan shooter ‘sprayed’ cop cars with gunshots during standoff

At about 3:20 a.m. Sunday, Elaine Kristiansen woke to the frantic ringing of her doorbell. She and her husband had been in a “deep sleep” before that, Kristiansen told Cowboy State Daily on Monday. She dressed and went to her front window, then went outside — and heard a woman sobbing. By then the woman was at another neighbor’s front door, pleading for help.

Those neighbors on Park Street in Sheridan called the police. “When the police came,” recalled Kristiansen, the woman ran to them, “sobbing hysterically, saying, ‘He has a gun. You have to go in, he has a gun.'” The police helped the woman into a car, then pulled up to her house. Three cop cars converged on the scene, and officers tried to make contact with the man still inside the woman’s home.

The Sheridan Police Department reported that the male left the home then retreated back inside it. Kristiansen gave a more dramatic characterization: “He didn’t flee the house. He came back out with a shotgun. And he shot at police for, like, 20 minutes.” When the man came back out and advanced toward officers, police “engaged the male and shot him,” the department reported.

The police department’s statement describes the man as having a “long gun.” The agency’s spokesman Capt. Tom Ringley declined Monday to confirm whether it was a shotgun, noting that the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation has taken over the case. That’s standard with officer-involved shootings, where local agencies come under investigation alongside other subjects.

Kristiansen recalled listening to gunshots in the dark Sunday morning. She watched police officers “stuck” behind their cars, trying from a distance to calm the shooter down. They were “constantly yelling at him, saying ‘Put the gun down, put the gun down. We don’t want to shoot you,'” she said. The man kept shooting at police, “so they shot him,” said Kristiansen.

She said the department’s later announcement describing several shots coming from the house toward officers was an understatement compared to the 20 minutes of persistent gunfire she said she heard. “He was just spraying all the police cars and trying to shoot them,” she said. Kristiansen heard police remark about the sight of blood and say, “Looks like he’s down.” As far as she knew Monday afternoon, the man was still in a hospital.

Kristiansen declined to identify the man or his wife publicly, citing what she called a pattern of people unleashing judgment before knowing all the details. She said she hopes people will give this family empathy and compassion while waiting for answers. The family has been in the neighborhood about three or four years and have “adorable” children. The man “has always been nice and friendly to us,” said Kristiansen, who called the incident highly irregular for him.

This is the second officer-involved shooting Kristiansen has witnessed closely. In February 2024, a Sheridan man who was being evicted shot and killed Sheridan Police Sgt. Nevada Krinkee. That man later died in a shootout with police. Kristiansen lamented “another shooting in our town.” “I just feel like our entire world is just full of anger,” she said. “People are full of anger. … I’m really sad today.” She said she hopes the tragedy will motivate people to take better care of one another. DCI is investigating the shooting. No further details have been released. The officer who fired the shots has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard protocol. The Sheridan Police Department has not released the name of the officer involved. The man’s condition remains unknown. The investigation is ongoing.