Wyoming
Former Gillette Cop Accused Of Triple Homicide Had Justified Shooting In Wyoming
The criminal affidavit pertaining to a former Wyoming police sergeant now accused of triple homicide in South Dakota alleges the man charged into his neighbor’s house and shot three young men to death after leaving home in a rage.
Jay Ostrem, 64, was a Gillette Police Department agent from 1982-2003 and retired at the rank of sergeant, Jennifer Toscana, Gillette City spokeswoman, confirmed Thursday.
He’s facing three first-degree murder charges in South Dakota, in what court documents describe as an attack on three young adult male neighbors, after Ostrem heard that one of them had made an unwanted sexual advance on his wife.
Ostrem had his first court appearance Wednesday, Dakota News Now reported.
The three victims included a 26-year-old man who’d allegedly rubbed his genitalia against Ostrem’s wife while the pair were drinking together – as Ostrem slept – in Ostrem’s home four days before the attack, according to an evidentiary affidavit filed in Turner County, South Dakota on Tuesday and sent to Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.
The other two victims included a 21-year-old man who was the first decedent’s brother, and a 35-year-old man who had a different last name from the two brothers, the affidavit says.
Neighbor Man
The wife reported to South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation agents that the 26-year-old man was a neighbor, and that he had been over at her home while Ostrem was there sleeping on May 23.
She said the man forcibly kissed her, exposed himself to her and rubbed his genitalia against her against her wishes, the affidavit says.
When she told Ostrem about these incidents four days later, Monday, he “got up and went raging out of the house,” says the document. The wife reportedly didn’t know where he was going or if he was armed when he left. She stayed home until law enforcement arrived, she said.
The Call
The 21-year-old called 911 dispatch at about 9:44 Monday night, frantic, saying a shooting was happening at the home across from Ostrem’s, reportedly. The affidavit says the man told dispatch that his brother had been shot and killed with a shotgun.
The shooter was “a guy from across the street,” the affidavit says. The caller then said the shooter had gone back to his own home; but after some time on the phone with the dispatcher, the young man said that he, too, had been shot, reportedly.
Then the man “stopped communicating with the dispatcher,” the document says.
Shotgun Shells
A Game Fish and Parks Conservation officer responded to the home where the shooting happened, and called for backup. There he met Ostrem exiting the home through the attached garage, allegedly.
The conservation officer ordered Ostrem to stop, but Ostrem kept walking down the street. So the officer drove his vehicle that way and contacted Ostrem again near an intersection, and ordered him to get on the ground.
Ostrem complied, and let the officer know he had a gun in his pocket, the document says. An AR-style rifle allegedly lay on the ground near Ostrem. His left hand was bleeding and he reeked of alcohol, the officer reportedly observed.
Agents discovered Ostrem had a .380 handgun in his pants pocket and also had spent shotgun shell casings and at least one spent rifle casing, the affidavit says.
He was arrested.
Into The Home
Investigators entered the home where the shooting had happened and found three deceased men with apparent gunshot wounds, reportedly. They noted that Ostrem’s home is just across the street.
Use Of Force Incident
Ostrem was involved in a lethal use-of-force incident 23 years ago in Gillette, according to civil court documents, but a federal lawsuit leveled against him over it was dismissed Aug. 18, 2004. Then-U.S. District Court Judge Clarence A. Brimmer noted the use of force officers used in that incident was not found to be unreasonable.
In the early-morning hours of Nov. 3, 2001, a woman left her home to get away from her husband, Michael Owens, with whom she’d been fighting in their Gillette home, according to a civil lawsuit complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming in 2003.
The woman’s sister reported Michael Owens to police, saying Owens was “just trying to kill her,” court documents say.
Dispatch asked Owens’ wife if Owens had a gun and she answered “yes.”
Ostrem and other Gillette police agents responded, found Owens to be driving, and followed Owens to his home. Brimmer’s order dismissing this case called it a “chase.”
One officer videotaped the events. The judge’s order says the tape “clearly reveals” the following sequence of events:
Officers ordered Owens to show his hands, as the man parked in his own driveway and rammed his pickup into the back of his garage.
Owens smashed into one of the agent’s patrol cars, then hit his garage again; then crashed into a boat seconds after one of the officers took cover behind it.
Owens then sped in reverse across the street and rammed the front door of a neighbor’s house.
Two officers (not Ostrem) were concerned for the neighbors’ safety and decided to use lethal force to stop Owens, but since they didn’t know where in the house the neighbors were, they didn’t fire.
Owens pulled forward and crashed into another car “in an apparent attempt” to hit one of the officers on scene. That officer was later found to be severely injured; he had to have two cervical discs fused, the judge’s order notes.
Then-Sgt. Ostrem saw all this and believed the officers’ lives were in danger. He ran alongside Owens’ pickup while drawing his gun; shouted commands at Owens; watched as the pickup rammed the back of the garage, and hoped Owens had knocked himself out, the order recounts.
But Owens kept driving, trying to back up again.
Ostrem emptied his entire pistol, even as Owens tried to get the truck into reverse. Owens started driving in reverse, and another officer opened fire, killing Owens.
“Our system of justice… does not deal in either sympathy or suspicion; it is built on proof,” wrote Brimmer when dismissing the case. “When the officers were threatened by Owens’ vehicle, a deadly weapon, the officers were permitted to use deadly force.”
What A Shock
Former Gillette Police Department Chief Ric Paul, who supervised Ostrem during their shared tenure, told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that the news of Ostrem’s homicide case shocked him.
“You just can’t understand why a guy of his magnitude would do something he apparently did,” said Paul, who described Ostrem as a solid, intelligent police officer.
Though Ostrem had potentially traumatic incidents on the job, Paul said he’d insisted on Ostrem having any issues from those addressed and tracked.
“And Jay was part of those (issue briefings for the critical incidents) he was involved in,” he said.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
ROCK SPRINGS, Wyoming (KUTV) — A man was hospitalized with critical injuries after he was reportedly shot by a deputy responding to reports of a disturbance.
Deputies with the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office and officers with the Rock Springs Police Department responded to the Sweetwater Heights apartment complex in the 2100 block of Century Boulevard just after 4 a.m. on Monday to investigate reports of a disturbance involving an armed individual.
Information that dispatch received indicated that the individual had shot himself. When officials arrived, they found the individual on the balcony of an upstairs apartment “who appeared to have a gunshot wound consistent with the initial report,” a press release states.
MORE | Officer-Involved Shooting
During the encounter, a deputy discharged their weapon and struck the individual.
Emergency medical personnel rendered aid, and the individual was transported to an area hospital in critical condition.
No law enforcement officers or members of the public were injured during the incident.
The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation will conduct an independent investigation.
The deputy who fired their weapon was placed on administrative leave per standard protocol.
_____
by Maggie Mullen, WyoFile
Albert Sommers, former Wyoming Speaker of the House, announced Thursday he will attempt to reclaim a seat he formerly held for more than a decade in the statehouse.
“Leadership matters,” Sommers, a lifelong cattle rancher, wrote in a press release. “Right now, the Wyoming House is too often focused on division instead of solutions. We need steady, effective leadership that solves problems—not rhetoric and political theater.”
Voters in 2013 first elected Sommers to House District 20, which encompasses Sublette County and an eastern section of Lincoln County. As a lawmaker, Sommers largely focused on health care, education and water issues. Over six terms, he rose through the ranks, serving in leadership positions and chairing committees focused on education funding and broadband.
In his announcement, Sommers highlighted his legislative work to establish funding for rural hospitals, prioritize “responsible property tax relief,” as well as the creation of the Wyoming Colorado River Advisory Committee within the State Engineer’s Office, “to ensure our water users have a voice in critical decisions affecting the Green River Valley,” he wrote.
As speaker, Sommers was a frequent target of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus as well as the DC-based State Freedom Caucus Network, even getting the attention of Fox News and other national, conservative news outlets. They often accused Sommers of not being conservative enough, and criticized him for keeping bills in “the drawer,” which has long been code for the unilateral power a speaker has to kill legislation by holding it back. (The practice of holding bills has been used to a much higher degree under Freedom Caucus leadership.)
In 2023, Sommers used the speaker’s powers to kill bills related to a school voucher program, banning instruction on gender and sexual orientation from some classrooms and criminalizing gender-affirming care for minors. At the time, Sommers defended his decision to hold back “bills that are unconstitutional, not well vetted, duplicate bills or debates, and bills that negate local control, restrict the rights of people or risk costly litigation financed by the people of Wyoming.”
He reiterated that philosophy and defended his record in his Thursday campaign announcement.
“I am a common-sense conservative who believes in getting things done. I support our core industries—oil and gas, ranching, and tourism—and I will continue to fight for the people and natural resources of Sublette County and LaBarge. I am pro-gun, pro-life, pro-family, and pro-education,” Sommers wrote. “I also take seriously my oath to uphold the U.S. and Wyoming Constitutions, which means I didn’t support bills that violated those constitutions. I read bills carefully and I voted accordingly.”
Following his term as speaker, Sommers stepped away from the House to run for Senate District 14 in 2024. He lost in the primary election to political newcomer Laura Pearson, a Freedom Caucus-endorsed Republican from Kemmerer, who also won in the general election. Her Senate win coincided with the Freedom Caucus winning control of the House.
“That race didn’t go my way, and I respected the outcome,” Sommers said in a Thursday press release. But “the direction of the Wyoming House,” since then, he said, has “raised serious concerns.”
Sommers pointed to the Freedom Caucus and its budget proposal, which, despite a funding surplus, included major cuts and funding denials. Ahead of the session, the caucus said its sights were set on shrinking spending and limiting the growth of government.
In his Thursday press release, Sommers criticized “decisions that cut food assistance for vulnerable children, reduced business opportunities, slashed funding to the University of Wyoming, eliminated resources for cheatgrass control, denied raises for state employees, and removed positions critical to protecting Wyoming’s water rights.”
Most of those proposals did not make it into the final budget bill.
Sommers also pointed to a controversy that dominated the 2026 session after a Teton County conservative activist handed out campaign checks to lawmakers on the House floor. Lawmakers in both chambers unanimously voted to ban such behavior before a House Special Investigative Committee found that the exchange did not violate the Wyoming Constitution nor did it amount to legislative misconduct. A Laramie County Sheriff’s Office criminal investigation is still underway.
But “controversies like ‘Checkgate’ undermined public trust, and decorum in the House deteriorated,” Sommers said.
“Transparency and accessibility will remain central to how I serve,” Sommers said. “As I’ve done before, I will provide regular updates on legislation, seek your input, and clearly explain my votes.”
Incumbent bows out
Rep. Mike Schmid, R-La Barge, currently represents House District 20, but announced Thursday morning that he would not seek reelection.
“It has truly been an honor to serve as your State Representative for House District 20. When I first ran, I had hoped to serve up to three terms and continue building on what I learned during my first term,” Schmid wrote in a Facebook post. “But life can change your priorities. Over the past year, my family has gone through some difficult times. My wife is dealing with serious health issues, and the death of my brother, Jim, just a few short weeks ago have made it clear to me where I need to spend my time.”
In March, Bill Winney, a perennial candidate and former nuclear submarine commander, announced he would run for House District 20.
The official candidate filing period opens May 14.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
Related
The following is a news release from the Wyoming’s Rock Springs Police Department:
ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — The Rock Springs Police Department is investigating a fatal incident that occurred early this morning in the parking lot of the Flying J Travel Center.
At approximately 5:00 a.m., a Flying J employee was working to direct commercial vehicle traffic within the lot. Initial findings suggest that as one semitruck began to move, the employee was positioned between that vehicle and a second stationary vehicle. The employee was subsequently pinned between the two units.
Rock Springs Fire Department and Castle Rock Ambulance arrived on the scene and coordinated life-saving measures. Despite the rapid response and medical intervention, the employee was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The identity of the deceased is being withheld at this time pending the notification of family members.
The driver involved in the incident, a resident of Idaho, remained on-site and has been fully cooperative with investigators. Following an initial statement and questioning, the driver was released. While the investigation remains open, the incident currently appears to be a tragic accident.
We extend our deepest condolences to the family of the deceased and the staff at Flying J. We also want to commend the rapid response and professional life-saving efforts coordinated by Rock Springs Fire and Castle Rock Ambulance during this difficult call.
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