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.
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.
About 20 minutes later, Sergeant Anthony Beminio, a Des Moines police officer, was found shot in his vehicle at a nearby intersection, about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the first scene.
[4][9][13] 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 35 miles (56 km) west of the shootings.
[11][21] 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.
In April 2014, he was charged with interference with official acts after becoming aggressive and resisting an Urbandale officer's attempt to pat him down in search of weapons.
Greene pleaded guilty in both cases, and was subsequently fined, given a year of probation and a restraining order against the man he threatened, and forced to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
[9] Two weeks prior to the shootings, he had to be physically escorted by police out of Urbandale High School, where his daughter was a student.
The incident occurred during a football game, when he waved a Confederate flag in front of black students during the national anthem, with the apparent intent to incite them into a physical confrontation with him.
[24] On October 29, four days before the shootings, he sent a note to the Urbandale Police Department in which he praised its officers for keeping the community safe, called them "absolute heroes", and apologized for his previous run-ins with law enforcement.
[3] The suspect's car and a high-powered rifle were recovered from a highly remote wooded area during a search by the ATF.
[11][20][23] Officers from the Des Moines, Urbandale, Ames, and Iowa State University Police Departments were involved in the investigation and manhunt.
[31] Attorney General Loretta Lynch condemned the shootings, saying that "violence has no place in the United States of America", and referenced the distrust between law enforcement and several communities nationwide.