Security footage shows suspect slamming man’s head into boulders in downtown Casper

CASPER, Wyo. — Casper police say security footage from the Nicolaysen Art Museum captured a prolonged assault on a man who was sitting by the museum and who did not attempt to fight back.

Dustin Big Medicine, 44, allegedly kicked the sitting man in the face, kicked him again in the face and body at least three times and punched him twice. As the victim tried to crawl away, Big Medicine allegedly dragged him by the ankles to a ring of landscaping boulders, lifted up his head by grabbing his shirt and slammed his head twice into the boulders.

The video reportedly shows Big Medicine standing up and kicking the man in the ribs three more times before walking away.

The victim reportedly sustained injuries including an eye socket fracture and told police the next day he may lose his eye, according to the affidavit.

The case began with a 911 call in the downtown area around 3 p.m. Monday, April 21. The victim, a 50-year-old man, had been assaulted nearby and walked over to South Wolcott Street near Backwards Distillery and the municipal parking garage. Officers saw multiple injuries to the man’s face. Before EMS took him to the hospital, he said Big Medicine had assaulted him.

Officers searched nearby and were directed to a trail of blood that led to the landscaped area on the north side of the NIC near the bus stop. A substantial amount of blood was found on the rocks.

At the hospital, the man told police he had been sitting on the lawn when Big Medicine and his girlfriend showed up and started fighting. He said he told them to knock it off or the cops would get called, and that Big Medicine then kicked him in the head and then kicked him again in the head, chest and ribs. He said he believed he went unconscious when Big Medicine grabbed his hoodie and slammed his head into the rocks.

On Tuesday, police got the security footage from the NIC. Police said Big Medicine is identifiable in the video carrying out the assault as described. Big Medicine was arrested at the same bus stop near the crime scene around 1 p.m. Tuesday.

At 2:15 p.m., the victim was found sitting in the same place where the assault took place the day before. He had been released from the hospital the day before with a broken nose, broken eye socket and a bone chip in his face. He said he couldn’t see out of his left eye or open it. He was scheduled for an appointment on Wednesday to see a specialist about whether or not it would have to be removed.

Big Medicine said in court on Wednesday that he was originally from Riverton but had recently made a home with his girlfriend in Casper. He has been arrested multiple times for public intoxication and pedestrian under the influence.

He told Judge Cynthia Sweet he had been sober “for a while” but had had “a little slip-up.” He said he’d recently begun working as a groundskeeper at the country club.

“This is just a little bump in the road for me,” he said.

Big Medicine is charged with two counts of felony aggravated assault and battery. One count alleges that landscaping rocks were used as a “drawn, deadly weapon.”

Big Medicine is presumed innocent unless proven or pleading guilty. Bond was set at $10,000 cash or surety.