| Without him actually standing over the victim with a smoking gun, blood on his hands, and surrounded by police the police would need to investigate from square one. No crime is higher on the scale than homicide meaning a defense attorney would fight it until no stone is left unturned or appeal left. Between collecting evidence, filing affidavits, having prosecutors review the case, a judge signing a warrant, then finding the person some time passes. As far as another state knowing about him being a suspect, my guess would be that some information turned up during the chase in Colorado. Personally if I was an officer chasing someone and finally caught the person, my question would be "why the hell are you running from me?" There is always some story behind a person's actions. Also if he was identified by a license or something and they found where he lived or came from, I would be calling that police department to find out everything I could about him.
As far as shielding people from the information, I can't think of anything more disruptive to a community than the police saying they had a fellow officer murder someone and is on the loose. Their phones would be lit up like a Christmas tree with citizens asking all sorts of questions preventing the honest and hard working officers from doing their job. If the allegations are true and he is charged, I would expect some sort of a press release so everything can at least be said at once rather than thousands of independent citizens taking low shots against the police integrity. J  |