A Des Moines police car covered in memorials to the fallen officers.
The man taken into custody in the shooting deaths of two central Iowa police officers is now formally charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Des Moines police spokesman, Sergeant Paul Parizek , says they were able to establish probable cause for charging 46-Scott Michael Greene of Urbandale in the deaths of Des Moines officer Tony Beminio and Urbandale officer Justin Martin.
Parizek refused to give any details about Greene’s mood or anything Greene told officers for fear of impacting the case against him.
“We don’t want to jeopardize this case. And if anybody here wants to live next door to this man who killed two police officers raise your hand and I’ll tell you the whole story,” Parizek says. “But I don’t think that’s what anybody here wants. Nobody wants that. We are not going to jeopardize this case, we are not going to talk about it, and we are going to hold our ground on that.”
DMPD spokesman Paul Parizek.
Parizek did give one detail of Greene’s arrest.”Handcuffs belonging to officer Martin and Sergeant Beminio were used to secure the prisoner in transport to jail,” Parizek says. He says the use of those handcuffs is very important to officers. Parizek says there was no relief for officers seeing the charges filed as they knew charges were filed and the big relief in the case came when Greene was captured.
Two Des Moines officers died earlier this year when their car was hit by a drunk driver as they were transporting a prisoner. Parizek says that adds to the stress on officers who are now dealing with two more deaths.
“It frustrates you that we know that this can happen. We know that this is a piece of it when we sign on — that some night you might come to work and you might not go home. We try to prepare or families for that the best, try to prepare our friends. The frustrating part is that it continues to happen,” according to Parizek.
Greene is being held in the Polk County Jail.