Two students have reportedly died, and a teacher was left in stable condition, following a shooting that happened on Monday (Jan. 23) at a Des Moines charter school, according to CBS News.
Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek told reporters at the scene that the call for help came at about 12:50 p.m. CT from the Starts Right Here educational mentorship program in downtown Des Moines, Iowa. The ages and the affiliations of the victims are yet to be released, but law enforcements said in a statement that police “have multiple potential suspects in custody.”
Parizek explained that “there was nothing random” about Monday’s shootings, however, no motive has been specified. It was the eighth homicide in the city of Des Moines in the past two months. He said, “And the why is the one thing that sometimes we never know, unless somebody tells us the why.”
Parizek added that based on a witness description, the victims were targeted. He said at about 1:20 p.m., police stopped a vehicle near MacRae Park, about two miles south of the shooting scene. One person fled and was tracked by a K-9 officer to the 1300 block of River Vista Drive, while the other two remained in the car. All three were taken into custody and are being questioned, he said.
Nicole Krantz, an innocent bystander and coder at MercyOne Des Moines Clinics Administration, said officials put her office, which is neighbors with the building at 455 S.W. Fifth St. where Starts Right Here is located, on lockdown immediately after the shooting. She said she saw someone running from the building with police in pursuit, both on foot and in patrol cars.
“We just saw a lot of cop cars pouring in from everywhere,” Krantz said. “It’s terrifying. We’re all worried. We went on lockdown, obviously. We were all told to stay away from the windows because we weren’t sure if they caught the guy.”
This incident is the latest act of gun violence that has happened in the Des Moines area since early December, including at least 10 homicides, several non-fatal shootings and the killing by Des Moines police of a 16-year-old boy, who authorities claimed raised a gun toward them.
This also comes one day after the United States was affected by a mass shooting. REVOLT reported on Saturday (Jan. 21) that at least 10 people were killed at a dance studio in Monterey Park, California.