It\u2019s a perfect day at the Laramie Skate Park, where a man tools around a concrete bowl named Robbie\u2019s Pocket, marked with a bronze plaque.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The bowl is there, along with a few other concrete additions to the park, in part because of Robbie Ramirez. He was there when the park first opened in 2000, while he was in high school, and came back to skate again years later, as his mental health was improving.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/p>\n Josh Kaffer, the head of the nonprofit that supports the Laramie Skate Park, skates in Robbie’s Pocket, a section of the park dedicated to Robbie Ramirez.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Josh Kaffer takes a break from skating and perches on a ledge rimming Robbie\u2019s Pocket, pointing around the park at other ledges and ramps and rails that Ramirez helped get built.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI think he was here for every pour but one,\u201d Kaffer says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ramirez was killed in 2018, when an Albany County sheriff\u2019s deputy shot him following a traffic stop. His death sparked conversations about police reform and hiring practices, prompted turnover among county officials and highlighted the need for accessible mental health services.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At the skate park, his death left a void.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI gave a eulogy at his funeral that basically said, like, I don\u2019t know how we\u2019re going to do this without him,\u201d Kaffer says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When Robbie\u2019s Pocket was poured, one of the final pieces of the updated park, Ramirez\u2019s ashes were mixed in with the concrete.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n A mural honoring Robbie Ramirez and showing him skating is painted on a garage next to the Ranger, a bar and liquor store that his mother owned and that he once worked at.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n A few blocks down, a bright-colored mural commemorating Ramirez\u2019s life covers a storage shed near the Ranger, a bar and liquor store that his mom owned and ran for years. One of Ramirez\u2019s friends from high school, artist Travis Ivey, just finished the mural this summer after six weeks of work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n On the other side of downtown Laramie, Ramirez\u2019s mom, Debbie Hinkel, keeps dozens of pieces of her son\u2019s pottery displayed around the building where she recently opened a nonprofit in his name.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Robbie\u2019s House, which she plans to eventually move to a dedicated home elsewhere in town, will eventually provide housing and stability for people with mental illness. For now, Hinkel hosts art workshops and other community-building events in the Custer Street space.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSince Robbie has died, I looked at what other ways can we deal with mental health besides just giving them medication,\u201d Hinkel said. \u201cA lot of the problem is, if you\u2019re isolating, you feel like you have no value.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s been four years since Ramirez was killed, and two since Hinkel filed a federal lawsuit against the county and sheriff\u2019s office<\/a> alleging wrongful death. The case ended in June after a confidential settlement was reached<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But still, four years out, advocates say there is still a lot to do.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just about Robbie\u2019s life being taken,\u201d Hinkel said, \u201cit\u2019s about the system being broken.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n On Nov. 4, 2018, Albany County Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Derek Colling turned on his lights to pull Robbie Ramirez over for not using a signal to turn left.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When Colling approached the car, Ramirez did not roll down his window and drove away to his home, an apartment about 150 feet away from where he was pulled over.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Robbie Ramirez used to help his mother in managing The Ranger, a well known bar and liquor store in Laramie.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n After he got out of the car, there was a confrontation between the two men<\/a>, and Colling used his taser. The officer then shot Ramirez, who was unarmed, once near his armpit and twice in his back after Ramirez fell to the ground, killing him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Many in the community were angered by the shooting, maintaining Colling did nothing to deescalate a situation that involved a person who lived with mental illness.\u00a0Ramirez had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, and had once spent time at an inpatient treatment facility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Others raised questions about Colling’s past and the decision to hire him. By the time Colling joined the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, he had killed two people while on duty as a police officer in Las Vegas. He was fired after being accused of beating a person filming police<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Two days after the shooting, Sheriff Dave O\u2019Malley won reelection to his third term. The day after that, Karlee Provenza, then a Ph.D. student and instructor at the University of Wyoming, started Albany County for Proper Policing (ACoPP) as a local watchdog group.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Debbie Hinkel, Robbie Ramirez’s mother, sits for a portrait on Sept. 28 in Laramie. After her son’s death, Hinkel founded Robbie’s House as a place of gathering, art and healing for people with mental illness.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n As with any police shooting in the state, the investigation into Ramirez\u2019s death was taken over by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation \u2014 an independent agency, though many of its investigators previously worked in law enforcement offices around Wyoming.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI do not believe you can put your faith in police to investigate police,\u201d Hinkel said. \u201cThey might be really good at investigating other crimes, but it’s just like asking a family member to be the one to root out what their child has done.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the days after the shooting, Hinkel and the skate park crew organized a vigil at the park. The community showed up to mourn Ramirez at one of his favorite places.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe anger was so real,\u201d Kaffer said. \u201cI had old Wyoming dudes coming up to me, being like, \u2018I\u2019ll kill that guy (Colling),\u2019 … real visceral. Just people that knew Robbie and were not aligned with defund the police or anything like that. Just really, really pissed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Conor Mullen, another original member of the Friends of the Laramie Skate Park, recalled bumper stickers popping up around town \u2014 \u201cFire Colling\u201d or \u201cJustice for Robbie.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ramirez\u2019s shooting brought the \u201cgood old boys\u201d of Albany County to light, reform advocates say, and likely prompted many of them to leave their posts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Many officials involved in the shooting and investigation are now out of office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Dave O\u2019Malley, the sheriff at the time and who\u2019d previously earned national praise for his role in investigating Matthew Shepard\u2019s murder, announced his retirement in late 2020<\/a>, after being notified of an impending lawsuit from Ramirez\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Peggy Trent, the county attorney who convened a grand jury that declined to indict Colling for Ramirez’s death,\u00a0left for a job in Kansas in 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And Colling, the officer who returned to his hometown sheriff\u2019s office after killing two people while on duty (coroner\u2019s juries ruled both were\u00a0justified) and then being fired as an officer, also left his post in 2021. He is now a real estate agent and landlord in Laramie.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe had a lot of other elected officials leave too,\u201d Sheriff Aaron Appelhans, who replaced O\u2019Malley, said. \u201cEverybody that was kind of involved in that situation is no longer working in the positions that they were working in when that incident occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The aftermath of the shooting also seemed to divide residents in Laramie, between those who supported the sheriff\u2019s office and those calling for justice for Ramirez.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI think there was a line drawn in the sand,\u201d said Linda Devine, a local criminal defense attorney who became involved in calls for reform following the shooting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Linda Devine, a Laramie attorney who got involved in police reform after the shooting, sits in her cafe on Sept. 28 in Laramie.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Provenza, the now-state representative who started ACoPP days after Ramirez\u2019s death, said that few in Laramie \u2014 a relatively progressive part of Wyoming \u2014 would have thought to question law enforcement before the shooting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Though language from nationwide calls to defund or abolish police has made its way to Albany County, most local organizers say they\u2019re mainly focused on working within existing systems of law enforcement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, sits for a portrait on Sept. 28 in Laramie. As a state lawmaker, Provenza has pushed for police reform measures including making body camera footage more accessible.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Devine, for example, believes starting within the system means turning inward \u2014 hiring good officers and supervisors, for one. While college students and younger organizers might push for more radical reforms, she said her years as an attorney in Laramie \u2014 and the connections she\u2019s made on both sides of the criminal justice system \u2014 has helped her make inroads with law enforcement and reformers alike.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhen ACoPP started, between 60 and 70% of our base were Republicans,\u201d Provenza said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a progressive cause … it was the people who think that the government should not have the power to infringe on your rights in such a way where they get to execute you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt was, I think, this sentiment of \u2014 we\u2019re not going to tolerate the good old boys. We\u2019re not going to let them do what they want and get away with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Two years after starting ACoPP, Provenza ran for and won a Laramie seat in the Wyoming Legislature as a Democrat. In her first year, she sponsored bills aimed at making body camera footage and personnel records for law enforcement more accessible and shortening the wait time to expunge criminal records.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n She attributes her political win to her very visible policing reform work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I could have won my election in 2020 had I not been known as the person who will cross party lines to demand transparency and accountability,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople saw that as a universal thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ramirez\u2019s death sent shockwaves through the Laramie community, prompting conversations about policing and mental health.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But by the time Laramie\u2019s streets flooded in protest after George Floyd was murdered by police nearly 900 miles away, Ramirez’s story wasn\u2019t making headlines anymore.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Provenza went to the first protest that May. As demonstrators chanted Floyd\u2019s name, she thought about Ramirez, and how many in the crowd didn\u2019t seem to remember the police shooting that had happened in their own city less than two years before.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI left in tears,\u201d Provenza said, \u201cbecause I felt like I failed my community and I failed Robbie, because nobody was saying Robbie\u2019s name.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n With Hinkel\u2019s blessing, demonstrations led by the Laramie Human Rights Network and ACoPP came to incorporate Ramirez in their calls for justice. Protests in Laramie lasted longer than any other place in the state, with hundreds taking to the streets daily at their start.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Demonstrators hold up signs while protesting racial injustice and police brutality in Laramie on June 3, 2020. A sign that reads “Justice for Robbie!” refers to Robbie Ramirez, who was shot and killed by Albany County Sheriff’s Deputy Derek Colling in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> Because demonstrators were filling Laramie streets, Laramie police were tasked with overseeing those protests. Many protesters bristled at the armed officers\u2019 presence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSomehow or another, the conversation was shifted to the Laramie Police Department\u00a0\u2014 I don\u2019t even know if it was a conversation as much as a target,\u201d Devine said. \u201cAnd then it became about transparency, and the citizen oversight board and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n An ad hoc working group was eventually formed to make recommendations to the city about policing. The top priority coming out of that group was the creation of a community oversight board for the department, a concept other communities have adopted in recent years and one heavily pushed by ACoPP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That still hasn\u2019t happened. There are some statutory issues with creating a board like that, which gave city council members pause. Those include a law that forbids agencies from sharing personnel files \u2014 including disciplinary records and investigations \u2014 with a citizen board.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In March, a vote to keep exploring how to implement an oversight board failed in Laramie City Council. That vote came under scrutiny, since council member\u00a0Pat Gabriel\u00a0changed his yes vote to a no following a private conversation<\/a> with fellow council member\u00a0Fred Schmechel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Provenza said that installing an oversight board is still No. 1 on her list.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt would be all community members, elected by their community, who have access to complaints, body cameras, their own investigator, separate from law enforcement,\u201d she said, \u201cand subpoena power. And they would all be paid.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The police chief at the time of Ramirez\u2019s shooting, Dale Stalder, retired in September. His replacement, Brian Browne, was sworn into office Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe shooting death of Robbie Ramirez was not a catalyst for police reform, oversight, or review, at least for LPD,\u201d Robert Terry, the interim chief, said in an email declining a request for an interview with the Star-Tribune. \u201cWhat it did do was exemplify the hiring and training practices of the LPD.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In\u00a0Sheriff Aaron Appelhans\u2019 office, a multi-panel whiteboard on the wall shows a few lists \u2014 names in all-caps handwriting written at a slight left tilt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Albany County Sheriff Aaron Appelhans stands for a portrait on Sept. 29 in Laramie.\u00a0Appelhans became sheriff in the aftermath of Robbie Ramirez’s death. He’s tried to diversify the force to make it more representative of the community it serves.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n ![\"Robbie](\"https:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/trib.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/6\/e8\/6e8258f8-443a-11ed-a8fc-3bcc20b01be6\/633cbe8f1e44a.image.jpg?resize=150%2C100)
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