CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation has flagged two people captured on video — one wearing a backpack — as being in the area at about the time an improvised explosive was left on the Great Seal of the state Capitol on Tuesday.
The agency released an image of the people taken from video surveillance around the Capitol building, according to a Friday afternoon statement from DCI.
The Capitol was evacuated and several city blocks closed for hours Tuesday after a suspicious package was found in front of the building and brought inside.
The package was determined to be what DCI describes as a “deconstructed live firework munition with a fuse.”
DCI Commander Ryan Cox told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday that authorities are investigating the incident as though the firework was placed there with malicious intent.
After searching the grounds with K-9s and personnel from multiple law enforcement agencies, the Capitol reopened on Wednesday.
Who Are They?
But the investigation continues as DCI, with help from the FBI, works to identify who left the explosive in front of the Capitol and why.
To that end, “DCI has reviewed a significant amount of video evidence and identified two subjects who were in the area together during the time in question,” the agency says in its Friday statement.”
The pair are not being called suspects, but DCI “definitely wants to question” the two people in the video, Cox told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.
Authorities have so far not made contact with them and are asking the community to help identify them, he said.
The first person is described as having a darker complexion and wearing a dark hoodie with a circle-shaped emblem on the front and sleeves.
That person also was wearing light-colored pants and dark shoes with white laces and white toe box.
The second person has a lighter complexion, had a backpack, and was wearing an unzipped, dark-colored coat, possibly made by North Face. Under the coat was a dark shirt.
The second person also was wearing dark pants and shoes.
That Hoodie
The image released Friday of the two people wasn’t taken at the Capitol, but at a nearby location in Cheyenne, Cox said.
The first person is wearing a very distinctive blue Vitriol Angel Face black wash zip hoodie with unique designs and Old English text.
“I think it’s rather unique,” Cox said, adding that investigators believe they have identified where in Cheyenne the hoodie may have been sold.
DNA Testing
While DCI isn’t releasing much more information about the explosive left at the Capitol, Cox said the FBI is still examining it.
He said the agency is preparing to do DNA testing on the explosive to potentially generate more leads into the investigation.
The device itself was cylindrical with no base, and less than a foot long, DCI has previously reported.
“This item was not immediately recognizable, even by our bomb folks,” Cox said previously. “They recognize it as having a solid potential to be an explosive like an IED, but then upon further analysis, it was not capable of inflicting harm as it was initially expected.”
Cox said the explosive did not appear to be something a consumer could find at a firework store.
Even so, the firework was not powerful enough to be considered a “bomb,” and would not be powerful enough to destroy a building or a car, Cox said.
“We're going to shy away from the word ‘bomb,’” he said. “I think bomb carries with it a connotation that is going to explode a block, going to take out a city block like an IED.
“I think most people, when they think of that, they think, ‘Oh, like that might destroy a car.’ And we're believing that what we have here is less than either one of those.”
Whether placing the live explosive on the Capitol grounds was an act of terrorism, Cox said Wednesday that’s part of the investigation.
He said investigators are examining the incident as a violation of state statutes against using explosives to put another person in reasonable danger. Such behavior could be considered terrorism, he said.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com and Jackson Walker can be reached at walker@cowboystatedaily.com.
