Suspects Arrested in Homicide Investigation
Monday, January 9 at approximately 6:00 p.m. Cheyenne Police Officers were dispatched to a report of a shooting in the area of Frontier Mall located at 1400 Dell Range Boulevard.
Responding officers secured the area and located one 16-year-old female victim with an apparent gunshot wound. Medical personnel arrived and declared the female was deceased.
Through the investigation, officers learned that four individuals were traveling in a vehicle together at the time of the incident. The suspects, Tirso Munguia, 19, of Cheyenne and Cody Nicholson, 18, of Cheyenne were seated in the back, while the victim and another female were seated in the front.
According to statements, Munguia and Nicholson were handling a firearm while the group was traveling on Dell Range Boulevard. Munguia reportedly fired the gun, striking the female victim in the front passenger seat. The vehicle pulled over and Nicholson fled on foot with the firearm. The driver then proceeded to the Frontier Mall parking lot and placed a call to 9-1-1.
Tips from community members assisted with locating Nicholson. Patrol officers and detectives followed up on all leads and took Nicholson into custody without incident. He was found to have an outstanding Laramie County warrant for a probation violation on an original charge of Driving Under the Influence. Nicholson was booked into the Laramie County Jail on the warrant and a charge of accessory after the fact to manslaughter.
Munguia was booked into the Laramie County Jail on a charge of manslaughter without incident.
This case remains under investigation by the Cheyenne Police Department.