A stand-off with law enforcement that began with two people shot, including a sheriff’s deputy, ended peacefully Monday night in southwest Iowa’s Adams County. Iowa D.C.I. Special Agent in charge Micheal Motsinger said the situation near Brooks began to unfold just before 5 P.M. with a 9-1-1 call the Adams County Dispatch Center regarding “shots fired” at a home.
Motsinger says upon arriving at the rural residence, the deputy was fired upon, the deputy returned fire and retreated from the home and was treated for minor injuries. Prior to the deputies’ arrival, a resident of the home escaped after being shot by an unnamed assailant and transported to a local hospital before being airlifted to Creighton University Hospital in Omaha, where a report on his condition was not available late Monday night.
Neither the victim of the shooting nor the deputy were officially identified. Janet Mercer lives about one-quarter of a mile up the road from where the shootings took place. She also placed the 9-1-1 call when her neighbor, Matt Herring, came pounding at her door on the back porch of her home.
She says he told her he’d been shot and asked if she would help him. Mercer took action to try and stop the bleeding while rescue crews were enroute. She said the sheriff told her the shooter was still in the house. Mercer says Herring told her he came home from work and found the man who shot him in the house. He also told her he didn’t recognize his assailant.
Mercer said Herring had walked through timber to get to her house and had torn his jeans in the process. She said the Herring — who was veteran of the Persian Gulf war and Afghanistan — suffered gunshot wounds to his left arm and left upper torso area, but was still able to walk to the ambulance.
Herring’s wife and the couple’s baby were not home when the shooting occurred. At least 50 law enforcement officers from southwest, western and central Iowa converged on the scene near the tiny town with about 50 residents. Shots were reportedly fired by the suspect at officers, more than an hour after the initial call came in. He had several guns at his disposal, as the home’s owner was an avid hunter, and his residence was said to have been like an “arsenal.”
Motsigner says the man finally surrendered three hours after officers first arrived. The state patrol sent a negotiator to speak with the suspect in the home, who surrendered to the Iowa State Patrol Tactical Team at around 8:30 P.M. The incident remains under investigation.
By Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic