A man has been charged in the fatal shooting of another man in the parking lot at Dolly Parton’s Stampede, which is a popular dinner attraction located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Evan Cogdill, 24, has been charged with criminally negligent homicide, according to the Sevier County Sheriff’s Office.
Cogdill was booked on Sunday, April 26. A day before, he allegedly shot 22-year-old Jacob Inselmann, who was from Steeleville, Illinois.
Who is Evan Cogdill?
Cogdill is from Marissa, Illinois. According to the Pigeon Forge Police Department, he and Inselmann were in the car together outside the Stampede venue when Cogdill’s firearm discharged and hit Inselmann. The victim was later pronounced dead at LeConte Medical Center.
The incident took place around 7:35 pm, after which Cogdill contacted cops. An investigation into the shooting is still underway.
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The Stampede operates locations in both Pigeon Forge and Branson, Missouri. Pigeon Forge is also home to Dollywood, which features a collection of 50 rides and attractions
The family-oriented attraction is popular for combining four-course southern meals with action in the form of musical performances, horseback theatrics, acrobatics, and more. The Pigeon Forge location opened in 1988, and back then, it was named Dixie Stampede. It was renamed in 2018 again.
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“When they said ‘Dixie’ was an offensive word, I thought, ‘Well, I don’t want to offend anybody. This is a business. We’ll just call it ‘The Stampede,’” Parton told Billboard in 2020 about the racist connotations of the word “Dixie,” as well as its association with the Confederacy. “As soon as you realize that [something] is a problem, you should fix it. Don’t be a dumb*** That’s where my heart is. I would never dream of hurting anybody on purpose.”
