CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - The Northern Arapaho Tribe is calling on the federal government to prosecute a Wyoming man on hate crime charges following the killing of one tribal member and the wounding of another at a detox center.
According to police, Roy Clyde walked into the Center of Hope detox facility in Riverton, Wyo., on Saturday through a back door. Police have said the centre caters for people with addiction problems.
Murphy said Clyde told investigators that homeless people were using city parks as a sewer.
“In his mind, the decision was made and he carried it out”. “He specifically indicated that if he had encountered white people meeting his criteria, he would have killed them as well”.
Clyde said he had always been considering killing people he called “park rangers”, a term used locally to describe homeless alcoholics, according to a police investigator’s statement.
Some come to the parks from the Wind River Indian Reservation, where alcohol is illegal, to drink in the parks.
Murphy declined to identify either the man killed in the shooting or the injured man. He said the injured man was being treated at a hospital in Casper.
“In my mind at least, clearly there is some hate involved”, Police Chief Mike Broadhead told KCWY.
A judge ruled Monday that Clyde be held without bond on one count of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for July 29. CNN could not determine if he has a lawyer.
A spokesperson for the reservation said that both of the shooting victims were Northern Arapaho.
“The council has received a steady stream of reports about abusive behavior towards native people”, he said. “Like in Charleston, people need to acknowledge that racism played a role in this”.
Victim Stallone Trosper died at the scene, County 10 reported.
A fundraising effort is underway to help the family of Goggles, who remains hospitalized.
Staff and patients barricaded themselves inside the facility to try and avoid Clyde, but he put his gun down, walked out and was arrested a short time later.
Volunteers of America and the Riverton Police Department have taken care of housing for those who were living at the Center of Hope and will start taking clients again next Monday.
As for security at the Center, Steel says they will remain to be a therapeutic environment.
