Cheyenne Police: ‘The Common Citizen Doesn’t Understand Police Work’

Cheyenne police are under fire after waiting nearly 33 hours to release information about an early Monday morning shooting that claimed the life of a 14-year-old Cheyenne boy.

• Teen Killed in Shooting in East Cheyenne

Lt. Rob Dafoe says he understands that the public wants answers in a timely manner, but "the common citizen doesn't understand police work."

"We're not hiding anything; we just don't want to hinder an investigation and make it harder than it already is by releasing too much information," said Dafoe.

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"If we are looking for a particular suspect and/or suspects, witnesses, etcetera, information out too soon can spook them, it can make them say and do things or leave an area, perhaps alter their story, etcetera," he added. "It's kind of police work 101."

Dafoe says another thing that the public may not understand is that police aren't going to sit on information if they believe the public is in danger.

"If there was any potential for public danger or anything that we saw that could represent a future danger or any kind of following violence or whatever the call was related to ... we would put out that information immediately," said Dafoe.

"If we're not reporting it, then we feel pretty comfortable that the public is not in danger and anybody that we think is in danger we've already taken that into account and we've dealt with that in whatever means we can," he added.