Des Moines officer shoots and kills man

Des Moines officers were involved in the capital city’s second police-related shooting in two days, when they got a call Monday afternoon to a residential neighborhood on the city’s east side. Sergeant Todd Dykstra says someone called 9-1-1 to report a suicidal man, and cops accompanied paramedics from the fire department. The officers arrived and went inside the home with the fire medics. They were confronted there by the man, who told them he had a gun. The cops tried to defuse the situation and talk to the man. An officer told the man to show his hands, but the man refused. Then the suspect said again that he had a gun, and put his hands in his waistband as if concealing something. He says the man wouldn’t show his hands though he was told to several times, but finally he moved as if he were pulling something out, turned toward to the officer as if he were going to shoot him — and the cop fired, killing the man. Investigation was just getting underway early last evening, as law-enforcement agencies tracked down family members to notify them of the man’s death. It took place in a house at 3328 Dubuque Avenue, about half a mile north of the State Fairgrounds in Des Moines.