- Scott Michael Greene, 46, was identified as the suspect in Wednesday morning’s ambush-style attack on Iowa police.
- “There’s somebody out there shooting police. There is a clear and present danger to police officers right now,” he said.
- “In all appearances it looks just like that, that these officers were ambushed,” Parizek said. “It doesn’t look like there was any interaction between these cowards and the officers they shot in their cars.”
BREAKING NEWS – Authorities in Iowa have identified the suspected gunman in the ambush-style attacks early Wednesday morning– occuring 20 minutes apart– that claimed the lives of two police officers who were sitting in their patrol cars.
Authorities said Scott Michael Greene, 46, is considered armed and dangerous. He is about 5’11 and 180 pounds and is believed to be driving a blue 2011 Ford F-150 with an Iowa license plate 780 YFR.
State officials are conducting a massive manhunt.
Scott Michael Greene, 46, was identified as the suspect in Wednesday morning’s ambush-style attack on Iowa police.
Officers responded to a report of shots fired at 1:06 a.m. and found an Urbandale Police Department officer who had been shot. Authorities from several agencies saturated the area after that shooting, and about 20 minutes later discovered that a Des Moines officer had been shot in a patrol car at an intersection. The shootings happened less than 2 miles apart and both took place along main streets that cut through residential areas.
“There’s somebody out there shooting police. There is a clear and present danger to police officers right now,” he said.
Police are working to determine if there is one gunman. One person who was identified as a witness described a pickup truck with a topper.
Today, Ben Hammes, Communications Director for Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds released the following statement in regards to the early morning shootings involving 2 police officers:
“In all appearances it looks just like that, that these officers were ambushed,” Parizek said. “It doesn’t look like there was any interaction between these cowards and the officers they shot in their cars.”
Urbandale Sgt. Chad Underwood said his officers are equipped with body cameras, but they are not always on. Schools in Urbandale were closed Wednesday, Fox 25 reported.
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Neither police officer was identified by officials and– as of a 5 a.m.– police were still notifying family members. Parizek said their names and details about their service would be released later Wednesday.
The shootings appear to be the latest cases of police officers being targeted for assassination in a year that has seen 111 police officers killed in the line of duty, including 50 by gunfire, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.
The shootings follow a spate of police killings, including ambushes of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Five officers were killed in Dallas on July 7 and three were killed later that month in Baton Rouge
Des Moines police said in a news release earlier that officers responded to a report of shots fired at the intersection of 70th Street and Aurora Avenue at 1:06 a.m., and the first officers to arrive on scene found an Urbandale officer with gunshot wounds.
Des Moines police officers responded to assist and just 20 minutes later, a Des Moines officer was found fatally shot at an intersection about two blocks away.
The Des Moines Register reported that streets at both shooting scenes were closed amid the investigation. Schools in the area were also closing for Wednesday, officials said.
The Des Moines police officer is believed to be the first from the city to be shot and killed on duty since two officers were gunned down in separate incidents in 1977, according to the Register.
Two Des Moines police officers were killed earlier this year when their car was struck head-on by a wrong-way drunken driver, according to the paper.
The Urbandale police officer is believed to be that department’s first to be shot dead in the line of duty, Underwood said at the news conference.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
