DES MOINES, Iowa — A white man with a history of racial provocations and confrontations with police ambushed and fatally shot two white officers Wednesday in separate attacks as they sat in their patrol cars, authorities said.
Police took Scott Michael Greene, 46, 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.
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.
He’s suspected in the early morning slayings of Justin Martin, 24, who had been with the force in the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale since 2015, and Sgt. Anthony Beminio, 38, who joined the Des Moines department in 2005.
Greene was taken to a hospital for treatment of unknown health issues and was to be questioned later at Des Moines police headquarters, Sgt. Paul Parizek said.
Police responded to a report of shots fired shortly after 1 a.m. and found the Urbandale officer. Authorities from several agencies soon saturated the area. About 20 minutes later, they found the Des Moines officer, who had responded to the first shooting, Parizek said.
The shootings happened less than 2 miles apart, and both took place along main streets that cut through residential areas.
In the first shooting, investigators believe the gunman walked up to the officer’s car and fired more than two dozen rounds.
“I wouldn’t call it a confrontation,” Urbandale Police Chief Ross McCarty said. “I don’t think he may have even been aware that there was a gunman next to him.”
The shootings follow a spate of police killings in recent months, including ambushes of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La. Five officers were killed July 7 in Dallas. Three more were killed later that month in Baton Rouge.
Race was an issue in those cases and others involving unarmed black men killed by officers. Greene is white, as were the officers.
Greene appeared to have issues with other races.
In the confrontation at the Urbandale High School football game, which Greene videotaped and posted on social media, he appeared to be trying to antagonize African-American fans when he shook a Confederate flag in front of them during the national anthem, McCarty said.
