COLORADO SPRINGS — Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade says he's called for a "corrective action" among communication strategies in the city after the deaths of two people, 24-year-old Samuel Knopp and 26-year-old Celie Montgomery on the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) campus last week.
"While the investigation indicated no imminent threat to the existing community, we acknowledge that this was a stressful weekend for the UCCS community," Mayor Mobolade told reporters at a news conference Thursday morning.
The Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) released limited information after Friday's shooting. On Friday night, CSPD sent out information saying the shooting deaths were not a murder-suicide, and no suspect information or details were released. CSPD later said it had intentionally withheld information from the public over the weekend as the investigation continued.
Police said they were communicating with the families of the victims over the weekend.
Nicholas Jordan, a 25-year-old from Detroit, Mich. and Knopp's roommate was arrested Monday morning. Community members expressed concerns over the lack of information being released over the weekend.
It's a frustration Mayor Mobolade echoed in Thursday's news conference.
"That one got to me because I did hear from community leaders who live in that neighborhood," Mobolade said, "How do we balance the need and the expediency to be able to capture a bad person with not, and try not to convey information that could potentially help them? So, that's, that's the tension and I understand and I welcome the frustration."
Mobolade said after this weekend he is looking for "corrective action" to be taken with the city's communication strategy. Vanessa Zink, a city spokesperson told News5 the Mayor did not mean disciplinary action but "an internal review of the public communication strategy to identify areas where communication frequency might be improved."
"Sometimes, no communication leaves this communication gap, and it's easy to start to fill the blanks," Mobolade said.
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