Tribe Seeks Hate Crime Charges After Parks Employee Shot 2 Native Americans, Killing 1

By Rachelle Blidner

The Northern Arapaho Tribe wants a Wyoming man charged with a hate crime after police say he killed one tribal member and wounded another at a detox center while targeting homeless alcoholics.
Roy Clyde, a 32-year-old parks employee, told authorities he shot Stallone Trooper and James (Sonny) Goggles as they were lying in beds at the Center of Hope in Riverton on Saturday, police said.
Trooper, 29, died at the scene, and Goggles is in serious condition at a nearby hospital. It’s unclear whether either of them was homeless.

Riverton, a town of about 11,000 people in central Wyoming, is surrounded by the Wind River Indian Reservation, home to the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes.

Tribal leaders who plan to meet with federal officials in Washington next week called for an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
“The trend of violence against Indian people in and around Riverton is alarming,” Dean Goggles, chairman of the Northern Arapaho Business Council and cousin of victim Sonny Goggles, said in a statement Tuesday. “It’s our responsibility as tribal leaders to do everything we can to try and stop these crimes of hate.”

Clyde said he lashed out because he was tired of cleaning up after “park rangers” — a term for homeless alcoholics that is often used against Native Americans who drink in area parks — according to police.
He reportedly told investigators he would have killed white people if he thought they were “park rangers.”

The victims “are members of our tribe, they are human beings and they matter to us,” Norman Willow, a member of the business council, said in a statement. “We are sickened by what happened here.”

 

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