- Des Moines native co-wrote controversial Jason Aldean song ‘Try That in a Small Town’ Des Moines Register
- Jason Aldean music video edited to remove Black Lives Matter images – The Washington Post The Washington Post
- Jason Aldean’s ‘small town’ crime song is hardly anti-Black Fort Worth Star-Telegram
- Musicians like Jason Aldean love to glorify ‘small-town’ America. It’s embarrassing The Guardian
- Black Lives Matter images deleted from Jason Aldean’s ‘Small Town’ video Yahoo Entertainment
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Tag Archives: Moines
Iowa Shooting That Left Two Dead Was Likely Gang-Related, Des Moines Police Say
Police are investigating a possible gang-related motive after two students were shot dead at an Iowa education center for at-risk youth.
Two male students, 18 years old and 16 years old, were fatally shot when a suspect pulled out a 9mm handgun and began firing just before 1 p.m. local time, a spokesperson for Des Moines Police said.
The gunfire broke out inside a common area used by the Starts Right Here education program in Des Moines. The organization’s president and founder
William Holmes,
a rapper who performs under the name Will Keeps, was injured in the shooting and remains hospitalized in a serious condition.
“The incident was definitely targeted, it was not random. There was nothing random about this,” Sgt.
Paul Parizek
said.
Mr. Walls and the two student victims were affiliated with rival gangs, he added.
Police later charged 18-year-old Des Moines resident Preston Walls with two counts of first-degree murder, along with attempted murder and gang participation. It was not clear who was serving as Mr. Walls’s attorney.
Two other suspects remain in custody.
First responders performed CPR on the victims found at the scene, according to Mr. Parizek. The students were brought to a local hospital but couldn’t be saved, he said.
The Des Moines incident comes after a mass shooting in California over the weekend left 11 people dead and another nine injured. Police are looking at a troubled romantic relationship as a possible motive for the state’s deadliest mass shooting in years. Also over the weekend, a nightclub shooting in Baton Rouge, La., injured over 10.
Des Moines police said Mr. Walls entered a common area at the Starts Right Here building where all three victims were. Mr. Holmes attempted to escort him from the area when Mr. Walls pulled away and began to shoot, Des Moines police said.
Police responding to reports of gunfire saw a suspicious vehicle leaving the area. The automobile was pulled over about 20 minutes later, roughly 2 miles from the education center, police said.
Two other people stayed in the car while Mr. Walls ran from the vehicle. A police dog helped track him down, Mr. Parizek said. Mr. Walls was taken into custody and a 9mm handgun was found nearby. Its ammunition magazine had a capacity of 31 rounds and contained three, police said.
The Starts Right Here website said it works with at-risk youth in the Des Moines Public Schools. The nonprofit has Des Moines Police Department Chief
Dana Wingert
on its board of directors and Iowa Gov.
Kim Reynolds
on its advisory board.
“I’ve seen first-hand how hard Will Keeps and his staff work to help at-risk kids through this alternative education program. My heart breaks for them, these kids and their families,” Ms. Reynolds, a Republican, said in a statement.
Mr. Parizek said the program deals with children “with a variety of challenges, some that many of us can’t wrap our brain around.”
Write to Talal Ansari at talal.ansari@wsj.com
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Appeared in the January 24, 2023, print edition as ‘Shooting Kills Two Students In Iowa.’
Des Moines shooting: 3 people injured at school, police say
CNN
—
Three people were injured Monday in a shooting at a school in Des Moines, Iowa, according to tweets from the Des Moines Police Department.
Police say two of those injured are in critical condition and one was seriously injured.
CNN affiliate KCCI reported that the injured included two students and one staff member.
At 12:53 p.m., Police and fire personnel responded to a report of a shooting at 455 SW 5th Street, which houses Starts Right Here, a charter school, police said in a news release. They found the injured people, who were taken to hospitals.
Starts Right Here is a charter school which helps young people living in disadvantaged circumstances, KCCI reported.
“Approximately twenty minutes after the shooting incident, and two miles away, Des Moines Police Department patrol officers and detectives took multiple suspects into custody following a traffic stop,” the release read.
Police did not identify the suspects or say if they had been charged.
Des Moines police probe dead body found at public park as homicide
Police in Des Moines, Iowa, are investigating a homicide after a dead body was found in a city park.
The discovery of a deceased person in the 2200 block of SW 11th St., on the west side of MacRae Park, on Monday is being probed as the 21st murder so far this year in Iowa’s capital city.
“Evidence indicates that this incident is isolated to those directly involved and there is no ongoing threat to the public,” Des Moines police tweeted.
In a press release obtained by KCCI, police said first responders were called at about 1:20 p.m. to MacRae Park on Des Moines’ south side on reports of a shooting.
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This file image shows the Des Moines Police Department’s response to the scene of a shooting Dec. 9, 2022.
(Des Moines Police)
The body of a 22-year-old man was found in the park, and “traumatic injury was apparent,” police said. The victim’s name was not immediately released pending next of kin notification.
The park was closed Monday due to the investigation but is expected to reopen Tuesday.
Fox News Digital reached out to Des Moines police early Tuesday for more information.
This comes hours after the city’s 19th and 20th homicides were recorded with the double murder of a mother and daughter found shot to death inside their home in the Merle Hay neighborhood.
This file image shows a Des Moines Police Department vehicle.
(Des Moines Police)
Their suspected killer, reportedly a 22-year-old ex-boyfriend of the daughter, was located alive at a different city park with a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was hospitalized in critical condition, police said.
Des Moines police later identified the victims as 20-year-old Emma Parker and her mother, 47-year-old Danielle Remily. Police believe the suspect forced his way into their home in the 2600 block of 53rd Street just before 3 a.m., allegedly shooting both victims and then fleeing on foot.
This photo, tweeted publicly by Des Moines Police, shows homicide victims Emma Parker, 20, and her 47-year-old mother, Danielle Remily.
(Des Moines Police)
“The Des Moines Police Department Communications Center received multiple calls reporting gunfire heard, as well as a call from a male reporting to be the person responsible for the shootings within the home,” Sgt. Paul Parizek said in a press release obtained by WOI-DT. “During that call, he indicated that he was walking to a nearby park with the intention of committing suicide.”
Both women were pronounced dead at the home scene.
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Officers located the suspect at nearby Riley Park with “an apparent gunshot injury.” Life-saving measures were initiated, and he was transported to the hospital, police said.
Des Moines, Iowa, street racer arrested after collision kills 4-year-old
Police charged an Iowa man Thursday in the death of a 4-year-old boy who was killed when a car that was racing on a city street crossed into oncoming lanes and crashed into two vehicles.
Robert Miller III, 35, of Urbandale, was arrested on multiple charges including homicide counts that reference reckless driving and drag racing, Des Moines police said.
Police said their investigation found that Miller’s car was traveling at more than 100 mph just before the crash Tuesday night.
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A Des Moines street racing incident has left a 4-year-old dead and several others, including the alleged perpetrator, injured.
The incident happened along a four-lane thoroughfare in Des Moines.
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Police said a car driven by Miller was racing an SUV. The car crossed into oncoming lanes and struck a vehicle that was carrying the 4-year-old boy, also injuring an adult and an 8-year-old inside. The car then struck another vehicle, injuring an adult driver.
Miller also was hurt.
All the injured were expected to recover.
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Police said they were still trying to locate the racing SUV, which left the area after the crash.
Iowa tornado: Six people — including two children — died in a tornado near Des Moines, Iowa, officials said Saturday.
The two children who died were under the age of five, Madison County Emergency Management Director Diogenes Ayala said.
“This is, I think, the worst anyone has seen in quite a long time,” Ayala said.
The tornado in Madison County, which is southwest of Des Moines, also left one adult with life-threatening injuries and three others hospitalized in serious condition, Ayala said.
The National Weather Service office in Des Moines said an initial estimate shows it was an EF3 tornado, with wind speeds of at least 136 miles per hour.
“This is a widespread storm,” Ayala said. He estimated there was serious damage to more than two dozen homes.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a disaster proclamation for Madison County, saying she and her husband are praying for the lives claimed and those injured in the tornado.
“Our hearts go out to all those affected by the deadly storms that tore through our state today,” Reynolds said in a news release Saturday. “Our hearts ache during this time, but I know Iowans will step up and come together to help in this time of need — they already are”
The proclamation allows state resources to be used for response and recovery efforts in Madison County, according to the news release. Other counties may be added to the proclamation.
Severe storms were forecast for Iowa, including in Des Moines, Saturday afternoon and evening.
Typically in March, severe weather is focused over the Gulf Coast states, from Texas to Florida. For example, Texas averages 11 tornadoes in March, while Iowa typically only sees two.
Des Moines officer says newspaper reporter covering protest was arrested after pepper spray shots
An Iowa officer testified on Monday that he arrested a Des Moines Register reporter assigned to cover a Black Lives Matter protest last year after she did not leave the area following his firing of pepper spray shots.
Des Moines Officer Luke Wilson spoke during the trial for reporter Andrea Sahouri and her then-boyfriend Spenser Robnett, saying he did not know at the time that Sahouri was a reporter, The Associated Press reported. Sahouri and Robnett face misdeamor charges of failure to disperse and interference with official acts.
The case against Sahouri has received local, national and international scrutiny from journalists and human rights advocates as she is believed to be the first working journalist to be tried in the U.S. since 2018, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
In his testimony, Wilson recounted that he responded outside Merle Hay mall on May 31 where demonstrators were breaking windows and throwing projectiles, such as rocks and water bottles, at officers. He said he fired pepper spray from a fogger to break up the crowd, but Sahouri remained.
“Once I determined she wasn’t leaving, I had to take action,” he said, according to the AP.
The officer said he grabbed Sahouri while firing pepper spray with his other hand, which hit both her and Robnett, who returned to retrieve her from custody. Wilson said he had thought he activated his body camera but discovered later that he had not.
Prosecutor Brecklyn Carey told jurors that footage shows police directing a crowd that included Sahouri and Robnett, to disperse at about 6:30 p.m. and shows 90 minutes later Robnett attempting to pull Sahouri away from the arresting officer, according to the AP.
But defense attorney Nicholas Klinefeldt argued that the 6:30 p.m. order was directed at those blocking an intersection and that the couple followed those instructions.
He said Sahouri and Robnett ran when tear gas was deployed an hour and a half later, and the officer grabbed and pepper sprayed her while she identified herself as press, to which Wilson allegedly responded, “that’s not what I asked.”
The Black Lives Matter protests last summer broke out nationally after George Floyd was killed after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.
Sahouri was among the more than 125 reporters detained or arrested during demonstrations in 2020, with most not being charged or having their charges dismissed. Twelve other reporters still face prosecution, the AP reported, citing the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
If the two are found guilty, they would face hundreds of dollars in fines, a criminal record and, although unlikely, potentially up to 30 days in jail on each count.