It’s Time To Apologize To Cascade County & Great Falls Law Enforcement

Now that the dust has settled in the Cascade County homicide investigation of Terrell Johnson, we have to give a much-deserved applause Cascade County Sheriff's Office, Great Falls Police Department, and all of the other agencies involved in bringing a suspect into custody.

On the other hand, there are plenty of people (most keyboard warriors) who actually owe law enforcement one big, juicy apology.

Cascade County Homicide Update: Lane Gibson Arrested

In case you missed it, Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter announced that law enforcement had brought a person of interest named Lane Gibson into custody before upgrading his charges to homicide.

"We have been working this investigation intensely over twenty days," Sheriff Slaughter said in a press conference on Friday afternoon, "Today, I want to announce we have amended the charges against Lane Gibson to deliberate homicide, a felony."

ALSO READ: Cascade County Sheriff's Office Announce Person of Interest In Custody

"He's also still being charges with tampering with a witness."

Now, it's important to note that Gibson is still innocent until proven guilty. That said, he's in custody and the way it looks from where we're sitting... this case is all but closed.

Some People Owe Law Enforcement and Our Sheriff An Apology

Now, our police won't say it, the FBI won't say it, and Sheriff Slaughter certainly won't say it, but I will: some of y'all keyboard warriors owe our sheriff and every other person involved in solving this case a huge apology.

For the last twenty days, Sheriff Slaughter provided updates to social media with the hope of generating a lead that he and other involved agencies could use to bring Johnson's murderer to justice.

READ MORE: Google Settles Lawsuit Alleging They Were Spying On Montana Users

You know, to give Johnson's family and friends some sense of closure after their loved one was brutally and tragically taken from them?

Or how about trying to uphold the law, remain as transparent as possible (without jeopardizing this case in court down the road), and keep us safe?

No matter how much information law enforcement, especially Sheriff Slaughter tried to provide while following procedures, there were still keyboard warriors nitpicking, irresponsibly speculating, and some even spreading dangerous misinformation.

I went through and found comments about this case that have aged terribly. I took the liberty of blacking out their last names even though they're freely commenting on public pages, but hopefully these people can take a step back and reflect on noy only how wrong they were... but how unnecessarily condescending they were toward the people tasked with keeping us safe.

Examples of People Who Owe Cascade County Law Enforcement An Apology

Let's start with Don.

Oh, yes they do, Don. One simple Google search would have told you the address is 2679 Palmer St. in Missoula.

Then you have folks like Orien who forget to take the tin foil hat off every now and then.

And then you have Philip, who wasn't necessarily rude or ill-intentioned in his comment, but he did doubt law enforcement and boy, was he (and the 19 others who liked his comment) wrong!

We also can't forget about Josh and his sarcasm... what do you think his reaction was to the press conference?

And then of course, you have Dori's comment which aged like milk at room temperature.

To Montana Law Enforcement: "Thank You."

In case our message wasn't clear enough, it's simple. To law enforcement: thank you for keeping us safe. There are many challenges and things that go on behind the scenes that many of us go our whole lives without knowing but know that many of us in the community appreciate what you're doing.

Throughout this case, you kept us informed as best as you could, and most importantly, you did your job and cracked the case.

Thank you for keeping our community safe.