Des Moines police shooting suspect had history of confrontations with officers

Police outside the home of alleged police shooter Scott Michael Greene.

(Image credit: Steve Pope/Getty Images)

published 2 November 2016

Scott Michael Greene, the 46-year-old Iowa man suspected of killing two police officers in Des Moines early Wednesday morning, had a history of confrontations with police.

Authorities have not revealed a possible motive, and say the officers, who were killed in separate incidents and found in their patrol cars, were probably caught off guard and never interacted with the gunman. Urbandale Officer Justin Martin, an Eagle Scout, joined the force in 2015, after graduating from Simpson College. Des Moines Sgt. Anthony "Tony" Beminio joined the department in 2005, and previously served as a school resource officer and a tactical officer.

At around 9:30 a.m., Greene flagged down a Department of Natural Resources officer, and told him to call 911 because he was having health problems, Des Moines Police Sgt. Paul Parizek said. Greene was taken to an area hospital, and has not been formally arrested or interviewed. In 2014, Greene pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor after he resisted an Urbandale police officer patting him down for a weapon, the Des Moines Register reports. Days later, he was accused of approaching a black man in a parking lot, calling him racial slurs, pointing a flashlight in his eyes, and threatening to kill him; he was charged with first-degree harassment, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, and was sentenced to one year of probation. Investigators are also looking into a video posted to YouTube on Oct. 14 by a Scott Greene, which shows a man waving a Confederate flag at black people at an Urbandale High School football game, the Register reports, then complaining about his rights being violated after he was asked to leave.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.