Two police officers slain in 'ambush-style' attacks in Iowa
By Brian Frank
DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Two police officers were fatally shot in a pair of "ambush-style" attacks around Des Moines, Iowa, early on Wednesday morning, and police were searching for the killer or killers, whose motives were unknown, officials and media reported.
One officer was found dead about 1 a.m. local time in Urbandale, an affluent suburb of Des Moines. The second officer was found dead about 1:30 a.m. local time in the city, NBC News reported.
"The shootings appear to have been ambush-style attacks," a statement from the Des Moines police department said, according to NBC News.
The Urbandale Police Department said on Twitter that one of its officers had been killed overnight but provided no further details. Des Moines police officials were not immediately available for comment.
A police cruiser at the site of the Des Moines shooting was riddled with three bullet holes, according to a Reuters witness there.
Both officers were shot in their squad cars about 2 miles (3 km) apart, Des Moines police department spokesman Paul Parizek told a news conference.
"There is a clear and present danger to police officers right now," he said.
Police were conducting a manhunt for the suspect or suspects throughout the area, Parizek said.
Before the shootings in Iowa, 50 police officers had died by gunfire, two accidentally, in the line of duty in the United States this year, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.
Wednesday's shootings come seven months after two Des Moines officers were killed when their vehicle was hit by a wrong-way drunken driver. Another Des Moines police officer died in a motorcycle accident in August.
Officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, were the targets of deadly ambushes earlier this year after police killed two black men in separate incidents in a Minnesota suburb and Baton Rouge. Philadelphia police officers have been deliberately targeted by a gunman twice this year.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Larry King and Lisa Von Ahn)
