Former Casper police officer set for arraignment on charges in armed standoff

CASPER, Wyo. — An off-duty Casper Police Department officer accused of firing toward law enforcement during a 16-hour standoff in east Casper last summer is scheduled for an arraignment in district court on Dec. 18. Court records indicate bond was amended to allow him to attend treatment.

Michael Hughes, 30, barricaded himself in an apartment at the Quail Run Apartments, 3841 E. 15th St., from the evening of Thursday, Aug. 22 through the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 23.

The Natrona County Sheriff’s Office responded to the complex around midnight and was in contact with Hughes, who was alone, throughout the encounter, during which he made hundreds of explicit threats to kill officers, according to the affidavit.

District court records indicate Hughes is in the midst of a divorce. A witness told investigators that Hughes had been drinking heavily and talked to his wife’s new boyfriend on the phone, touching off the personal crisis. They also said he had a prescription for ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic with some forms of therapeutic application.

Hughes reportedly fired twice into the ceiling of his apartment, causing the people living above to seek shelter.

The surrounding apartment buildings were evacuated. On the afternoon of Aug. 24, members of a special response team were assembled outside Hughes’s front window in attempts to remove the curtain, and Hughes fired a shot out the window after he became visible, the affidavit said. The bullet is believed to have traveled toward an unoccupied playground and one of the evacuated buildings.

Around 4:15 p.m., Hughes handcuffed himself, lay face-down on the floor and allowed himself to be arrested, according to the affidavit.

Bond was initially set at $500,000 cash only. That was reduced to $20,000 cash or surety so that Hughes could attend a treatment facility in Utah tailored specifically to first responders, according to circuit court filings.

A court order was then signed allowing Hughes to attend an aftercare facility in Texas from Nov. 8 to Nov. 24.

Hughes is presumed innocent unless proven or pleading guilty. He is formally charged with five counts of aggravated assault and battery for firing out the window the special response team was gathered at. He is charged with reckless endangerment for firing a weapon into the ceiling.

He is also charged with property destruction, including a grabbing and breaking a drone that had flown through the window during the standoff.