Police 'heartbroken' after ambush leaves 2 Des Moines-area officers dead

Shock and heartbreak hung over the Des Moines metro area Wednesday after a lone killer in the dark of night gunned down two local police officers patrolling in their vehicles.

Urbandale Police Officer Justin Martin, 24, and Des Moines Police Sgt. Anthony “Tony” Beminio, 38, were killed in separate barrages of gunfire about 2 miles apart early Wednesday morning.

The man accused of slaying them, Scott Michael Greene, 46, of Urbandale, has had several run-ins with local police and school officials. He was taken into custody less than nine hours  after the shooting when he turned himself over to a Department of Natural Resources employee in rural Dallas County.

News accounts of the slayings dominated media coverage across the United States. And it plunged the Des Moines metro once more into mourning — less than eight months after two Des Moines police officers were killed in a fiery crash on Interstate Highway 80 with a drunken driver traveling the wrong way.

On Wednesday, residents once again placed fresh flowers on black-shrouded police vehicles memorializing fallen officers.

"We're a very tight-knit community," said Sgt. Paul Parizek, Des Moines police department spokesman. "Des Moines is not a big city. We all know each other. We're heartbroken."   MORE