In the first minutes of October 1, 2019, Cheyenne police were pulled toward Romero Park after receiving word that something violent had happened in the darkness near the parking lot. By the time officers reached the park at 1317 Parsley Blvd., they found three people already dead from apparent gunshot wounds, their lives ending in a place that should have been quiet at that hour. Among them was Abigail Maxine “Abby” Smith, a 24-year-old White woman.
Investigators quickly focused on what appeared to be a planned meeting that turned fatal. Detectives said the three had met in the parking lot, and that Brian Perkins was believed to have shot Smith and Michael Tolar and then turned the gun on himself. Police described Perkins as the sole suspect, and because he was dead at the scene, there was no arrest to be made and no criminal case to carry into court the way a surviving suspect’s case typically would be.
As the early facts came into view, police suggested the motive likely lived in the history between the people involved rather than in something random. A Cheyenne police spokesman said there was a personal relationship between the parties and that they knew each other, though investigators did not publicly detail what that relationship was. Authorities also said they had no indication that drugs were involved, and they continued working the case as they would any fatal shooting—gathering what they could, even in a case where the suspect could not be questioned.
The scene itself offered little help beyond its grim certainty. Because of the time and location, police said there were no witnesses, and they traced the first alert back to family concern: a family member of one of the victims contacted police at 12:02 a.m., and officers arrived at 12:05 a.m. Investigators believed the gunfire happened just before midnight, leaving only minutes between the violence and the discovery.
Smith’s death rippled beyond the park and into the military community anchored just a few miles away. She was stationed at F.E. Warren Air Force Base and served as an electronic maintenance technician with the 90th Missile Maintenance Squadron, having joined the Air Force in January 2016. As her name moved from police reports to the hearts of people who knew her, leaders at the base voiced condolences and emphasized cooperation with the investigation, while Cheyenne police weighed how personal ties could have steered the night toward tragedy.
