Collin James Jones, 60, a White/Caucasian man, died late Friday night, July 10, 2020, in the lakeside community of Alcova, Wyoming, near Alcova Reservoir southwest of Casper. Deputies were dispatched to an Alcova trailer home after a report of a fight, and when they arrived they found people already trying to save him as CPR was being performed. He had suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and medics pronounced him dead at the scene.
In the first days after the shooting, investigators said they had identified the person who fired the shots, but they were careful about what that meant in the eyes of the law. A sheriff's office spokesman would not say whether the shooter was being labeled a suspect, emphasizing instead that the case remained active and that investigators intended to forward their findings to prosecutors for review. The message to the public was that there was no ongoing danger tied to what had happened, and that the person tied to the shooting was cooperating as the investigation continued to take shape.
What made the case especially hard to pin down, authorities said, was the absence of clear witnesses to the moment the gunfire erupted. Investigators indicated they were not aware of any eyewitnesses, and a handgun was recovered from the scene as they worked to reconstruct the chain of events. As of those early official updates, no arrest or criminal charge was announced in public reporting, and investigators said it had not yet been determined whether charges would be brought.
Away from the flashing lights and police tape, those who knew Collin described a life tightly bound to sports and the water that drew him back to Alcova. Hockey, in particular, became his passion, taking him far beyond Wyoming to train in Chicago and eventually to the U.S. Deaf Olympic Hockey Team, where he played against high-level competition across the United States and Canada. In the end, the place he loved for boating and “lake life” became the place where his story was cut short, leaving family and friends to grieve while the unanswered questions around the shooting lingered.
