Starting the healing — Byron Town Council offers community help to deal with tragedy
POWELL — Emotions are running high in Byron and surrounding communities following a tragic murder/suicide, and Mayor Allan Clark and members of the town council want to help begin the healing process.
They are bringing in professionals willing to help those struggling emotionally with the recent shooting deaths of four children and their mother, who pulled the trigger, in the town known for kind neighbors and caring leaders.
Clark is inviting anyone affected by the tragedy on the afternoon of Feb. 10 to attend a meeting with mental health care professionals next week at the Byron Town Hall.
He has also invited first responders and local and state representatives, including Gov. Mark Gordon, who has championed programs to help those in need of counseling for mental health issues.
"It's a very, very tender time," Clark said. "I know there's a lot of people hurting — some that might need counseling or maybe just to visit about it. So I'm inviting professionals to come visit with us, to help us cope with this and begin the healing, to move forward."
What happened was so unfathomable that even Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn and other first responders thought, at first, it could be a hoax.
Nonetheless, Blackburn and Deputy Jeff Angell, who were in Lovell at the time, arrived on the scene within minutes.
Other nearby officers, including additional sheriff’s deputies, Lovell police officers, a highway patrolman and school resource officers, responded to the call within seconds of one another.
Blackburn said those arriving first gathered as a group where, based on years of training, they quickly developed a “short plan” for entering the premises as safely as possible.
Blackburn said, though it wasn’t his “first rodeo” in terms of horrific crime scenes he has witnessed in his 40 years in law enforcement, it is one that affected him emotionally and one that he will not forget.
“The incident is still far too raw and far too sensitive for our first responders to process,” he said. “They’re still trying to make sense of this themselves, so don’t expect us to be talking about specifics. Only those who have been there can understand the gut-wrenching feeling of trying to process a situation like this. Nobody can prepare you for that first realization that it was not a hoax.
“This is the kind of thing that changes a person inside. It’s the kind of thing that forces a person to draw on his wits, on his faith and community support,” Blackburn added. “Fortunately, most of us have great families and live in great communities. Everyone has been so wonderful and we haven’t even begun to thank the community for their support. It’s a blessing we have a community standing behind us.”
Law enforcement and first responders have programs in place to help deal with their careers going from one tragedy to another. Yet the staffing in these communities is so small that many of the first responders had to be back at work the next day and didn’t have time to process their own sadness and shock.
“Some people mistakenly think that we are jaded or cold or callous because of the volume of things we see, but I don’t care who you are, having to see stuff like that is hard, even for the toughest of us,” Blackburn said. “We have families. We have loved ones, too. A lot of the deputies saw their own children and grandchildren in the faces of the children they were trying to save that day."
Everyone has been touched by this incident, Clark said.
He hopes to gauge the needs of the community in the first meeting Tuesday and begin to seek funding for further counseling if needed.
He knows there have been many who have offered to support the community, but he has also seen hateful reactions to Tranyelle Harshman and anyone who dares to try to understand mental illness and seek a way to forgive her for her actions.
Clark has also been criticized about his efforts to help the community heal, which includes forgiving Tranyelle Harshman.
"I hate to see all the angry people. I mean, I understand — there were four young girls and the mother shot them," Clark said, his voice cracking. "I want to be kind and forgiving, but I just have a hard time when seeing the dark side of it all. I don't understand. I don't. So I'm not going to say that she was a bad mom or a bad wife. I just think something very unfortunate happened, and it's a bad deal, but I don't really appreciate those people that come out — especially if you didn't know her — I mean, they don't know the situation."
He said he isn't going to concern himself with those who are judging him. He simply wants to help all seeking to understand.
"I find that, if I just talk about it, that it helps a lot — with someone that doesn't judge me for thinking that she loved her kids," he said. "In my heart I feel she was a good mom, wife and daughter. I have a tendency to try to show a lot of mercy. Thank goodness [those expressing hate] are not the final judge. I look forward to when I die to be judged for what I did on Earth. [The judge] isn't going to be my neighbor, it's not going to be one of my brothers or sisters. It's going to be God Almighty.”
He said healing will be hard, but he is trying to help in any way he can.
"It's my place to help start the healing and ... to try to help us come together as a community," he said. "The bad news always gets the most publicity — it's not the good things that happen. Something bad happened here, but I think some good can come of it. We need to find that good."
Finding help
The outreach effort begins Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 6 p.m. at the Byron Town Hall.
Those who have thoughts of suicide should call the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline.
Callers to the 24-hour help line are connected with resources specific to the physical location and needs of the caller. Though the alliance does not pay directly for counseling services, it does provide a list of about a dozen available resources on its website, some designed specifically to help people living in rural areas.
This story was published on February 20, 2025.