Two Iowa Police Officers Killed In ‘Ambush-Style Attacks.’ Search For Suspect Underway

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Two police officers in central Iowa were shot and killed today in a pair of “ambush-style attacks,” the Des Moines Police Department said.

Police offered few initial details on the shootings, saying that the investigation was just getting underway, but they said both officers were sitting in their squad cars when they were shot and killed.

The shooting suspect is 46 year old Scott Michael Greene.

Authorities in the Des Moines area appeared shaken by the double shooting, which came during a year that has seen bloody attacks on officers in cities like Dallas and Baton Rouge, assaults that fueled a sense of anxiety among law enforcement nationwide.

“It doesn’t look like there was any interaction between these officers and whoever the coward is that shot them while they sat in their car,” Sgt. Paul Parizek, a Des Moines police spokesman, said during a briefing early Wednesday, before briefly choking back emotion as another officer reached a hand out to show him support.

The first shooting in Iowa occurred at 1:06 a.m. when an officer in Urbandale, which is part of metropolitan Des Moines, responded to a report of shots fired, Parizek told The Washington Post.

The officer was shot while sitting alone in his patrol car at 70th Street and Aurora Ave., next to Urbandale High School. He was pronounced dead on the scene, Parizek said.

About 20 minutes later, Des Moines police officers responding to the shooting of the first officer came across a patrol car at Merle Hay Rd. and Sheridan Dr., an intersection about two miles away, where they found another officer with a gunshot wound, according to Parizek. The officer, who was among those responding, was transported to the Iowa Methodist Medical Center, where he too was pronounced dead.

Neither of the officers’ names have been released as the families have not yet been notified, officials said.

Police said that both shootings appeared to have been ambushes, and Parizek said both officers “clearly were just seated in their cars when they were shot.”

Parizek said police in Des Moines, Iowa’s largest city, are currently “developing suspect information.” They have little information on a suspect, but had received a description of a pickup truck with a topper.

“Everyone that can be on it is,” Parizek said at a press conference at 5 a.m. local time.

Police in the area “doubled up” officers, having them work in pairs for safety, officials said. By 5 a.m. local time, squad cars and mobile command centers lined the street near where the second officer was shot.

“You’ve got the best police department in the nation right here,” Parizek said. “This is what we do, this is who we are. We’re going to be here tomorrow.”

Parizek said the ongoing situation posed a clear threat to law enforcement officers in the area.

“These guys were gunned down sitting in their car, doing nothing wrong … There’s somebody out there shooting police officers,” he said during a briefing. “We hope we find him before anybody else gets hurt. There’s a clear and present danger to police officers right now.”

The Urbandale Community School District said it was canceling all classes and closing all facilities Wednesday “per the recommendations of Urbandale and Des Moines law enforcement,” school officials said in a statement. They also asked staffers not to report to work.

The Des Moines public school system said that they would have school on Wednesday, a decision made after consulting with the city’s police chief.

“Our community is in mourning today at the news that two police officers – one from Des Moines and one from Urbandale – were killed overnight,” the school system said in a statement.

While Urbandale had canceled classes because one of the shootings was near one of its high schools, the Des Moines school system said it determined there was “no need to cancel classes in Des Moines,” but added that it would remain in touch with the police throughout the day.

Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov Kim Reynolds said they were briefed about the shootings shortly after they occurred.

“An attack on public safety officers is an attack on the public safety of all Iowans,” Branstad, R, and Reynolds, R, said in a joint statement. “We call on Iowans to support our law enforcement officials in bringing this suspect to justice. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the police officers who were tragically killed in the line of duty as well as the officers who continue to put themselves in harm’s way.”

There have been at least 49 officers shot and killed in the line of duty this year, according to preliminary statistics from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a nonprofit that tracks police deaths. In a report released earlier this year, the fund said that more than half of the officers killed by that point were shot in ambushes.

In some of the fatal cases this year, officers died in high-profile incidents, including ambushes in Dallas and Baton Rouge in July that left eight police officers dead.

This is the latest tragedy to strike the Des Moines Police Dept. In March, two officers were killed while transporting a prisoner after they were struck head-on by a vehicle driving at more than 100 mph the wrong way down Interstate 80. The blood-alcohol content of the man driving the wrong way was three times the legal limit, according to toxicology tests, WHO reported.

More information on the shooting is expected at another press conference later Wednesday morning.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post · Travis M. Andrews, Derek Hawkins, Ben Guarino, Mark Berman 

{Matzav.com}


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