GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) - A man accused of fatally shooting a friend at an apartment in northeastern Wyoming told police he acted in self-defense while a witness described a prank gone wrong, according to court documents.
Joshua Lewis Campbell is charged with manslaughter for the death of 21-year-old Tanner Miller in Gillette on June 2.
Campbell, 21, told police he shot Miller in self-defense after Miller came into Campbell’s apartment, the Gillette News Record reported.
“I feared for my life. I asked him several times who he was and he would not respond and he came through my door very fast. I was standing off to the side when I defended myself,” a Gillette police officer quoted Campbell in an affidavit.
A friend, Alex Macilravie, told police the three had been hanging out at the apartment and left to buy more alcohol, according to the affidavit.
Macilravie says when they returned, he and Campbell went into the apartment while Miller was parking. Macilravie and Campbell locked the door, turned off the lights and got rifles to scare Miller as a prank when Miller came in.
Miller tried to enter a couple times before Campbell unlocked the door. Miller entered and turned on the lights, and Campbell shot Miller with an AR-15 rifle, Macilravie told police.
Emergency dispatchers got a 911 hang-up call and when they called back, Campbell said he had shot an intruder, according to the affidavit.
Campbell was alive when police and medical workers arrived but pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour later.
A pathologist determined from an autopsy the gun was fired no further than 3 inches (8 centimeters) from Miller’s head, according to the affidavit.
“This is a case where there are two distinctly different versions of events. We’re still wondering why the witness gave the version of events that he did,” Campbell’s attorney, Steven Titus, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The two men had been friends since they were both 6 years old and there is no reason Campbell would have hurt Miller, Titus said.
“We’re still trying to figure out what happened,” Titus said.
Manslaughter is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. A preliminary hearing for Campbell was set for Friday.
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