State Briefs

Teenage girl identified as instigator of ‘threat’

RIVERTON (WNE) — After a Riverton Police Department release alerted the community to the threat of gun-related violence at Riverton High School, instigator of the supposed threat was identified late Friday afternoon as a 14-year-old girl. 

RPD chief Eric Murphy issued an announcement on Friday morning, acknowledging that the threat was “vague at best, but we are taking it very seriously and investigating the threat in an effort to locate a suspect and keep the kids and staff safe.” 

The comment that interested police emerged in mid-April, when one RHS student confronted the girl on social media, in an attempt to provoke her to reveal her identity. 

The girl’s anonymous Instagram account was said to have been derogatory toward the student body of the Riverton school. 

In a statement that reflected on his briefing of the situation, Fremont County Attorney Patrick LeBrun said that the conversation under investigation devolved into “a 17-year-old boy telling a 14-year-old girl that she was fat and ugly, and furthermore, (he) told her that she was the kind of person who would shoot up a school.” 

The Instagram user now known to school authorities made just one response to the provocation. LeBrun said the response was “’Gotchaaaa. May 15,’ followed by a wink emoji.” 

It was this response that induced both the FBI and the RPD to launch an investigation into the matter. 

LeBrun, who is a parent of a child in a Riverton school, concluded his statement with his personal belief that “my child will be safe at school on May 15.”

Montana mussel discovery has Wyoming on high alert

CODY (WNE) — Yellowstone National Park and Wyoming Game and Fish are becoming increasingly vigilant about the dangers to waterways from zebra and quagga mussels.

The tiny invasive species, long on the organizations’ watch list, have the potential to infect and ruin fisheries and even drinking water if not repelled from water systems.

“It’s a disaster,” warned Game and Fish director Brian Nesvik in a talk in Cody last Thursday. “It’s bad stuff.”

Only two days earlier in Cody, Todd Koel, the National Park Service fisheries supervisor in Yellowstone, also addressed the threat.

The recent discovery of mussels in some bodies of water in Montana has helped raise the profile of the small mollusks that are the size of a coin.

“It heightened awareness,” Koel said. “They have been advancing west for some time.”

Mussels are native to eastern Europe, but worked their way across the continent and then to the United States. They are freshwater species that breed quickly and reconfigure ecosystems to the point other fish in lakes die off or unwelcome vegetation grows.

Zebra, and the stronger quagga mussels, invade water bodies by adhering to the bottom of boats that are transported from place to place, or by remaining in water carried in boats whose owners move them across the country. Mud, sand and animal and plant matter can conceal them.

This is a key reason why Wyoming has an elaborate watercraft inspection system for boats arriving in the state. Likewise, Yellowstone has ratcheted up its protective measures designed to prevent any invasion into the Park’s waters. 

Man fired multiple times at Cheyenne police in chase

CHEYENNE (WNE) — The man who was shot twice after leading law enforcement on a high-speed chase through Cheyenne on May 3 allegedly told investigators he fled because he was in possession of methamphetamine and had an outstanding warrant.

According to court documents, Dominique Childers told detectives from the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation he “freaked out” when a trooper from the Wyoming Highway Patrol tried to pull him over for speeding on southbound Interstate 25 near Cheyenne.

The trooper said Childers, who was allegedly driving a stolen 2016 Toyota Camry, reached a maximum speed of 115 mph while trying to avoid being pulled over on the interstate. 

It was near the governor’s residence on Central Avenue that Childers allegedly rolled down his window and fired several times at the state trooper. 

Throughout the chase, Childers fired at intervals at the trooper’s patrol car. At one point, he hit the trooper’s windshield in the upper right corner.

When Childers turned eastbound on 19th Street, a Cheyenne Police Department patrol car pulled alongside the Camry. Childers allegedly fired at the patrol car, shattering the passenger side window and spraying the officer with glass.

The CPD officer returned fire and struck Childers twice. The chase ended when the Camry struck a metal fence at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Childers currently is facing nine charges, including two counts of felony assault and battery-threatening with a weapon, one count of felony theft related to the stolen car and two counts of felony property destruction.