Wyoming officer won’t be charged for fatally shooting man in Riverton parking lot

RIVERTON, Wyo. (AP) — A Wyoming prosecutor says a Riverton police officer acted lawfully when he fatally shot a man who attacked the officer with a knife during an arrest.

The Casper Star-Tribune reports that Fremont County Attorney Patrick LeBrun declined to press criminal charges against the unidentified officer in the Sept. 21 death of 58-year-old Anderson Antelope.

LeBrun says Antelope, an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe, was intoxicated and stabbed the officer with a knife outside the Riverton Walmart.

The prosecutor says the officer’s body armor stopped the knife from entering his chest.

The officer was responding to a report of an intoxicated person.

LeBrun says the officer had a right to use deadly force if he believed his life or the lives of others were in immediate danger.

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Information from: Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, http://www.trib.com