In the early hours of November 2, 2016, Des Moines Police Department officer Anthony Beminio and Urbandale Police Department officer Justin Martin were killed in separate "ambush-style" shootings in and near Des Moines, Iowa. The perpetrator in both shootings, identified as 46-year-old Scott Michael Greene of Urbandale, Iowa, was apprehended by police hours later. Greene pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life without parole on May 20, 2017.
Background and events
According to a report released in 2016 by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 50 U.S. police officers were killed by homicide as of late July, representing a significant increase from the 33 officers murdered in 2015. The report also noted an increase of "ambush killings" targeting officers, with fourteen incidents recorded. Also in July 2016, there had been two mass shootings targeting police officers in Dallas, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in a ten-day period. Speaking for the Des Moines Police Department after the Des Moines-area shootings, Sergeant Paul Parizek noted, "There is a clear and present danger to police officers right now."
On November 2, 2016, Justin Martin, an Urbandale police officer, was killed shortly after 1:00 a.m. in Urbandale, located about northwest of Des Moines. Officers responding to a 1:06 report of shots being fired found him dead in his patrol car. About 20 minutes later, Sergeant Anthony Beminio, a Des Moines police officer, was found shot in his vehicle at a nearby intersection, about from the first scene. Beminio was taken to the Iowa Methodist Medical Center, where he died, according to Sergeant Parizek. Security footage of Beminio's death, time-stamped at about 1:09, depicted him being fired upon by a man who had driven a truck beside Beminio's vehicle.
Victims
The two slain officers were identified as:
Officer Justin Martin, 24, who had been with the department since 2015. He was believed to be the first officer of the Urbandale Police Department to be killed in the line of duty. Sergeant Anthony Beminio, 39, who had been with the department since 2005. He was the third officer of the Des Moines Police Department to be killed in the line of duty in 2016, following the March deaths of two officers in a head-on collision with an intoxicated driver on Interstate 80, and also the first officer to die from a homicide since 1977.
Perpetrator
Scott Michael Greene, 46, was identified by police as the sole suspect in both shootings through "a series of leads and investigative tips", including a vehicle description provided by a witness. He was a resident of Urbandale.
Less than two hours after his identification, the Dallas County Sheriff's Office and the Iowa State Patrol apprehended Greene at 9:15 a.m. According to police, he was found walking unarmed down G Trail at 320th Way, a gravel road in Wiscotta, located south of Redfield and some west of the shootings. He had flagged down an Iowa Department of Natural Resources officer and asked him to call 9-1-1. He was transported to a hospital after he complained of a preexisting health problem.
Personal life
Greene had three children from two relationships and was an employee at a furniture store from June 2006 to August 2013. Also, for three separate times in recent years, he had been a part-time worker at two local Ace Hardware stores.
In October 2016, he was hired by a small construction business in Ankeny that specialized in fences, even though he had no experience building fences. He had told the company that he "was pretty desperate" for a job and that he needed to support his teenage daughter. The company sent him home after three days "because he was not taking directions and wasn't working", and though it gave him the chance to return to work under a different crew, Greene quit instead. Afterwards, he posted a video on YouTube of a worker driving a truck, and claimed, in a written message below the video, that the company fired him after he reported unsafe driving.
Neighbors described Greene as a depressed loner and said that he had been going through several personal hardships, including the death of his father, the departure of his wife, and his separation from his children. At the time of the shootings, he was living with his mother and daughter in the former's house, located near Urbandale High School.