Carbondale police clarify information during a community meeting on sexual assault over the weekend

Carbondale police held a community meeting Monday after an assault was reported Saturday evening.

During the community meeting at the Old Thompson Barn in Carbondale, Police Chief Kirk Wilson said they would provide as much information as possible about the suspect, described as a man in his 30s wearing a black hoodie.

All other information about the suspect, Wilson said, is false and he asked the public to please stop spreading rumors about the suspect’s race as they have no information to confirm or deny anything else about them.

“This is not a political matter,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of people making it political online… when people post this misinformation, there’s a human being who has experienced a horrific, traumatic event, who reads everything that everyone in this community, and agitators outside the community, post.”

Wilson also dispelled misinformation about whether there was a kidnapping.

“This was not a 48-hour incident,” he said. “The time frame is approximately 30 minutes to an hour, depending on her (the victim’s) recollection.”

Wilson stated that they are looking for the individual accused of sexual assault and he clarified that additional charges will be tied to this individual’s arrest afterward.

Some people in the crowd asked why police didn’t come to the victim’s neighbors to tell them what happened, for their own safety.

“There are always two officers on duty,” Wilson said. “We had someone transported to a medical facility; an officer had to come along. This allowed one officer to remain at the location and collect evidence before that evidence was lost. Our first and foremost responsibility is to preserve the scene so that we can hopefully achieve a successful prosecution in the future.”

Wilson said additional officers arrived to help collect evidence, but the department has a total of 18 people and 15 sworn officers.

Another question asked was why more information about the incident could not be shared.

“In practice, police do not share information about sexual assault with the public,” Wilson said. “That’s to protect several things: Number one is the victim. There’s a victim… if we post all the information about the case to make people feel better about what’s going on, if someone comes in and says they’re the person who did this, and they’re not, then it will be very difficult for us.”

Some in the crowd were curious whether police had the suspect’s DNA.

“We can collect DNA evidence. Unless that person is in CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) as a DNA hit, because they have DNA in the system, even the DNA evidence we collected that night will not be conclusive as far as identifying a person ,” said Lt. William (Bill) Kirkland. “We do collect DNA evidence, it is sent to a lab for testing, but unless the person the DNA belongs to is in the system… it doesn’t just create a person and tell us who that is.”

Still, others wanted to know how they knew this assault was not an isolated incident and how police were going to protect them.

“Do we know it’s an ongoing threat? No,” Kirkland said. “We have no way of saying it isn’t, and we have no way of saying it is.”

Kirkland said he would like to have a police officer in everyone’s room to help people feel safe, but that wasn’t practical and they can’t do that.

“Community safety is a shared responsibility,” he said. “We have to keep each other safe. The police cannot do this for everyone. Do we think it behooves people to lock their doors and windows? Yes.”

Kirkland said he understands it’s Carbondale, people don’t feel like they want to do that, but maybe it’s time for things to change as the community changes.

Wilson said adults can carry pepper spray, meaning anyone 18 and older can’t, but minors might not, especially on school campuses.

‘It’s not that we don’t want to give you information. The information we give you is the information we have,” Kirkland said. “People who are victims of a crime, especially a crime like this, go through a very traumatic experience. It may take a while for her to remember that information.”

Kirkland stated that after arriving on scene, they spoke with the victim to obtain this information and are still in contact with her.

“The information we have is what she was able to give us at the time,” he said.

The police department will post updates to the public on the Town of Carbondale website and people can sign up for alerts at http://www.carbondalegov.org/.