Though the search for a wanted criminal led to lockdowns at a couple of West Des Moines grade schools on Friday, the man had been staying in the community for some time according to investigators who set out to find him. West Des Moines police and U.S. Marshals were serving a warrant for violating parole when they went to an apartment house where they’d determined Stephen Edward NcNeeley had likely been staying.
Gary Sherzan, head of community-based Corrections for Iowa’s Fifth Court District, says McNeeley had failed to keep in touch with his parole officer, which triggered the warrant for his arrest.
Sherzan says his court policing agency works with other law enforcement in apprehending people like this suspect. The 41-year-old McNeeley took off when he saw the officers, and after ditching a vehicle he’d caught a ride in he took off on foot, sparking a search that had several agencies driving and walking through the upscale Jordan Creek neighborhood with its big new shopping center, and even searching from the air in a state patrol plane.