Prosecutor: Wyoming sheriff’s officer justified in shooting

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - A Wyoming sheriff's officer was justified when he shot and killed a man who was carrying an ax, a prosecutor announced Monday.

Platte County sheriff's Capt. David Russell shot 36-year-old David Matthew Cain while responding to a report of a family fight at Cain's home April 1 near Wheatland.

Platte County Attorney Douglas Weaver released a letter Monday summarizing the investigation.

Body camera footage showed Cain holding an ax and advancing toward Russell, ignoring three commands to drop the weapon, according to the letter from Wheatland-area attorney John B. Robinson.

Robinson reviewed a Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation report into the shooting, as well as body camera footage and a medical examiner's report. Cain was "responsible for his own death," Robinson wrote.

A toxicology report found Cain had amphetamine, methamphetamine and THC in his system at the time of the shooting, the Casper Star-Tribune reports.

Cain's mother, Donna Persefield, and brother, Nathan Cain, disputed parts of the law enforcement account. The brothers had stopped fighting and Cain, who was headed to chop wood, didn't have time to respond to Russell's commands, they told the newspaper.