Shooting probe could be ‘long and tedious’
Four days after a shooting at Cedar and Prospect streets left a 27-year-old Kingston man dead, city police continue to search for his killer and warn it could be a “long and tedious” investigation.
Kingston Police Detective Lt. Thierry Croizer said Sunday afternoon that police did not have any updates on their investigation into the shooting death of Daniel Thomas Thursday evening, Oct. 24. Even so, he said police will “be working on it until it’s solved.”
“It’s going to be a long tedious investigation, but we need to bring this person or persons to justice,” Croizer said.
Croizer said previously that Thomas had been shot once in the face. “He was pronounced dead at the hospital,” he said.
It was not clear where Thomas lived, but that it was somewhere in Kingston. “He seemed to move from place to place,” Croizer said Saturday.
Croizer said police continue to follow up on leads, but they still haven’t had any witnesses tell them what they saw, not just heard, that evening, and that has stymied the investigation.
“We need someone who saw something, someone who has info that’s tangible,” Croizer said.
Croizer said he’s growing increasingly frustrated by the lack of cooperation from potential witnesses.
“I don’t know if it’s a fear of retribution, or the climate we’re in where people don’t trust the police,” he said.
He said some members of his team have been working on just a couple of hours of sleep over the past several days.
“We have an investigation, you hate to quit, but you need to get some rest,” Croizer said. “We want to be sure we’re able to do the right thing and do the best thing we can for this family.”
Croizer said he wanted to remind members of the public that the investigative process can be quite time-consuming and is quite different in reality than what people see on popular television detective shows.
“The public gets frustrated. We know we have a valuable piece of evidence, but sometimes it might be days, weeks or even months before we get that back,” Croizer said. “It’s not like they see on “CSI” where every week it’s solved within an hour or carried on to the next week and solved within that hour.”
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call city police at (845) 3311671. Anonymous tips can be made at (845) 331-9944 or through the Submit-A-Tip website at www.tipsubmit.com/webtipsstart.aspx.