Woman killed when Casper police responded to burglary report lived at the home, court documents show

A woman killed Monday morning during an encounter with police responding to a burglary report at a Casper residence is listed in court documents as living in the home.

Police have declined to say if the person killed was a criminal suspect or the resident of the house, but court records examined by WyoFile indicate the woman, 37-year-old Jody Cobia, legally resided at the home.

Casper police officers responded to the 1600 block of South McKinley Street, a residential neighborhood in the central part of the city, around 12:36 a.m. Monday. They were responding to a report of an armed burglar in the residence, according to a police statement. 

The officers “made contact with a subject armed with a firearm,” shots were fired and the woman was then taken to the hospital, where doctors declared her dead, the statement said. 

The statement is not explicit about whether officers shot Cobia. “During the encounter, shots were fired,” it reads.  

A department official declined to provide WyoFile with additional information Monday morning, including whether the person who was shot lived at the home, citing the early stages of the investigation. 

Early Monday afternoon, the Natrona County Coroners’ Office identified the dead woman as Cobia. Court records reviewed by WyoFile indicate she had sole legal possession of the home as part of a protection order granted in August, though tax records put the home in her husband’s name.

According to the filings, Cobia was the mother of three children and was in the early stages of a divorce from her husband. Court records indicate Cobia petitioned a judge for, and received, a protection order from her husband in August. 

That protection order, reviewed by WyoFile, granted Cobia sole possession of the house, 1623 S. McKinley Street, until August of this year. Multiple court documents list the McKinley Street address as her residence.

Mid-morning Monday, a WyoFile journalist observed that the door of 1623 S. McKinley street remained slightly open, though there was no other evidence of an active crime scene investigation nearly 12 hours after the shooting. 

On Monday, Casper Police Capt. Jeremy Tremel declined to say whether the person shot was the home resident or a burglary suspect, or whether there was a burglary suspect on the scene. “All I can tell you right now is we responded to a report of a suspected burglary,” he said.

He did not immediately respond to a second request for comment after the coroner published its identification. 

Cobia’s husband, Aren Cobia, indicated he was a resident of the home in a divorce petition filed earlier this month. But the court record also indicates Jody Cobia was served with the divorce petition, in person, at the South McKinley Street address on April 15. 

Reached briefly by WyoFile, Aren Cobia asked for time to grieve Jody Cobia’s death and declined to otherwise comment. Aren Cobia told a reporter from another news outlet, Cowboy State Daily, that there was no burglar in the home and police had killed his wife.

The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation will investigate the shooting. After police shootings, it’s typical for DCI to conduct an investigation and then provide the findings of that review to an elected county attorney. The prosecutor then decides whether or not to charge officers with any crimes. Prosecutors, in some cases, refer that decision to an outside county attorney to bring an additional level of independence to the investigation.

The officers involved in the shooting are now on administrative leave, according to the department’s news release. 

Officials did not describe the person shot as a suspect in that news release, only as a “subject armed with a firearm.” Because of the ambiguity of the official statement, commenters on social media, as well as two Wyoming news outlets, described the deceased as a criminal suspect.

“Suspected burglar dead in Casper Police shooting,” was the headline on an initial Cowboy State Daily story that was online throughout the morning Monday. By the early afternoon, the news site had updated that headline to “One dead in officer-involved shooting during Casper burglary response,” and the site had issued a correction. 

“Suspect dead after Casper police respond to armed burglary,” Casper-news site Oil City News reported. 

On Facebook, a large number of commenters commended the officers who responded to the home and in several instances suggested a burglary suspect deserved to be killed. “Finally a story with a happy ending,” one commenter wrote. “Clearly he valued their stuff more than his life and got what he deserved,” wrote another. 

WyoFile editor Joshua Wolfson contributed reporting from Casper.