DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The Latest on two officers in the Des Moines, Iowa, area who were killed in what authorities describe as ambush-style attacks (all times local):
8 p.m.
Funeral arrangements have been set for an Iowa officer who was shot to death as he sat in his police car on a suburban Des Moines street.
Urbandale police announced Thursday night that the funeral for officer Justin Martin will be held Tuesday at 11:40 a.m. at South Calhoun Middle School in his hometown of Rockwell City. The city of 1,700 is about 75 miles northwest of Des Moines.
He will be buried at Rosehill Cemetery, a spot on the edge of the community surrounded by farmland.
The 24-year-old Martin was gunned down early Wednesday. About 20 minutes later, 38-year-old Des Moines police Sgt. Anthony Beminio was shot to death as he sat in his car less than 2 miles away.
Police apprehended Scott Michael Greene hours after the shooting and charged him Thursday with two counts of first-degree murder.
Services haven’t been announced for Beminio.
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4:30 p.m.
The man charged with killing two Iowa police officers is behind bars.
Scott Michael Greene was booked into the Polk County Jail in Des Moines on Thursday afternoon.
Greene was arrested earlier in the day and charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Des Moines Sgt. Anthony Beminio and Urbandale officer Justin Martin. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Police say Greene fired upon the officers while they were sitting in their patrol cars in separate attacks early Wednesday. He surrendered to authorities hours later, but had been hospitalized for treatment of a pre-existing medical condition until Thursday.
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4 p.m.
The son of the man charged with killing two police officers is a member of the Iowa National Guard.
Col. Greg Hapgood, a spokesman for the guard, said Thursday that 26-year-old Scott Michael Greene Jr. is a sergeant.
Greene is the son of 46-year-old Scott Michael Greene, of Urbandale, who was charged Thursday with two counts of first-degree murder. Police say he fired upon two officers who were sitting in their patrol cars early Wednesday.
The older Greene has at least two other children, including a daughter who attends Urbandale High School.
Hapgood says the guard has offered Sgt. Greene a list of possible resources that may be helpful during a family crisis, but that he has not asked for any “specific accommodations at this time.”
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2:20 p.m.
Authorities have charged an Iowa man with two counts of first-degree murder in the ambush shooting deaths of two police officers.
The Des Moines Police Department said that 46-year-old Scott Michael Greene was put under arrest Thursday afternoon after being questioned by detectives.
The department says that Greene was put into the handcuffs that had belonged to the officers who were killed, Sgt. Anthony Beminio and Urbandale officer Justin Martin. Greene is expected to be transported to the county jail. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Beminio, 38, and Martin, 24, were shot after 1 a.m. Wednesday while sitting in their patrol cars in separate incidents less than 2 miles apart. Police say they have recovered a rifle that was believed to be used in the shootings.
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1:50 p.m.
A man suspected of killing two Iowa police officers has been released from a hospital and is being questioned at Des Moines police headquarters.
Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek says investigators began questioning 46-year-old Scott Michael Greene on Thursday, a day after he was taken into custody following the shooting deaths of officers from Urbandale and Des Moines.
Greene was taken to a hospital Wednesday after flagging down a Department of Natural Resources employee in a rural area west of Des Moines and complaining of a medical problem. Police had identified Greene as a suspect in the killing of 24-year-old Urbandale officer Justin Martin and 39-year-old Des Moines Sgt. Anthony Beminio.
The officers were killed early Wednesday in separate shootings as they sat in their cars.
Police weren’t able to question Greene while he was being treated in the hospital.
Parizek said earlier Greene would likely be charged with murder.
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11:20 a.m.
The man suspected in the shooting deaths of two Iowa police officers had been ordered by a judge to move out of his mother’s home just hours earlier.
Court documents show a judge ruled Tuesday that 46-year-old Scott Greene had committed elder abuse against his mother, Patricia Greene, by “hitting and financially exploiting” her. Police suspect Greene in ambush attacks that killed two officers early Wednesday.
The judge ordered Greene to move out of his mother’s home in Urbandale, a suburb of Des Moines, before Nov. 6 and to stay away for a year. Greene was told he could go to the home to remove his belongings if accompanied by an officer.
Patricia Greene applied for a restraining order against her son on Oct. 19, days after she was charged with hitting him. The 66-year-old wrote that her son told one of her friends that he would move and not bother her again if she gave him $20,000.
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10:50 a.m.
Police say they appreciate the outpouring of support from the Des Moines community following the shooting deaths of two officers.
Sgt. Paul Parizek got emotional during a news conference Thursday, saying officers represent “the security blanket you guys sleep under every night.”
Urbandale Police Officer Justin Martin and Des Moines Sgt. Anthony Beminio were shot early Wednesday while sitting in their patrol cars in separate incidents less than 2 miles apart.
Police say the suspect, Scott Greene, turned himself in hours later and was hospitalized. He’s expected to be released from the hospital Thursday.
Parizek says the vast majority of the community has showered police with support, ranging from flowers at memorials to donations help the officers’ families.
(This story has been corrected to show the shootings occurred less than 2 miles apart, not 20 miles.)
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10:25 a.m.
Police say a gun found by a search dog in a wooded area is believed to be weapon used in the fatal ambush shootings of 2 Iowa police officers.
Des Moines police spokesman Sgt. Paul Parizek said Thursday that the weapon was found a day earlier “where no person probably could have found it.” He declined to provide further details.
Police say the suspect, Scott Greene, turned himself in just hours after the two officers were shot in separate attacks early Wednesday.
Parizek said Greene was expected to be released from the hospital on Thursday. He says investigations have yet to speak with Greene.
Parizek said a motive remains unclear, but that investigators are looking at possible first-degree murder charges. No formal charges have been filed.
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9:15 a.m.
An Iowa construction company says the man suspected of killing two Iowa police officers was hired last month but quit days later.
Police say Scott Greene turned himself in just hours after the two officers were fatally shot in separate ambush attacks early Wednesday.
Sara Nicklin, the office manager for Central Iowa Fencing in Ankeny, said Greene “was pretty desperate” to find work and told the company he had a teenage daughter to support.
Nicklin says Greene was hired even though he had no experience building fences. She says he was sent home on his third day “because he was not taking directions and wasn’t working,” and when told he could work on a different crew, “he chose not to show up.”
Greene posted a cellphone video online last week indicating he was fired after reporting unsafe driving. Nicklin denies Greene was fired and says she hasn’t seen the video.
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7:45 a.m.
No formal charges have been filed yet against the man suspected of fatally shooting two police officers in Iowa in separate ambush attacks, but the man remains hospitalized.
Police say 46-year-old Scott Michael Greene turned himself into authorities on Wednesday, just hours after the killings near Des Moines.
Des Moines Police Sgt. Paul Parizek (puh-REE’-zihk) says Greene remained in a hospital Thursday morning for treatment of an existing medical condition. He says Greene has yet to be formally charged.
Parizek says police will provide an update on the case later Thursday morning.
Greene is suspected in the early-morning slayings of 38-year-old Des Moines Police Sgt. Anthony Beminio and 24-year-old Urbandale Police Officer Justin Martin. Urbandale is a suburb of Des Moines.
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1:10 a.m.
Police say a white man with a history of racial provocations and confrontations with police has ambushed and fatally shot two white officers in separate attacks as they sat in their patrol cars.
Police took 46-year-old Scott Michael Greene into custody hours after the killings and less than three weeks after he argued with officers who removed him from a high school football game where he had unfurled a Confederate flag near black spectators. The officers were fatally shot early Wednesday.
Greene flagged down an Iowa Department of Natural Resources employee in a rural area west of Des Moines, identified himself and asked that the employee call 911. Sheriff’s deputies and state patrol officers took him into custody.
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