Conversations on The Free Press community forum on our Web site keep alluding to the “real story” and allege there’s a lot more to the events reported so far. The Free Press will follow up completely on the event when the police have finished their investigation.

I know law enforcement will not get over their disagreement with us soon. It was never our intent to call Skjervold. We did it by accident.

But it was our intention to get some kind of news out by deadline to let our readers know that, yes, this was a serious public safety situation. Whenever police are shot, there is danger to the rest of the community.

To let people know that and let them know as soon as we possibly can was our goal. We believe the public good was served by our stories.

Joe Spear is managing editor at The Free Press. Contact him at jspear@mankatofreepress.com