Two students were killed shortly before 1 p.m. Monday in shootings at Starts Right Here, an educational mentoring program in downtown Des Moines that helps at-risk youth and has won high-profile support from state leaders and from the city.
Police spokesman Sgt. Paul Parizek said Starts Right Here founder and CEO Will Holmes, known by his stage name Will Keeps, was seriously injured and remains hospitalized Monday evening.
Parizek said the injured students, ages 16 and 18, were listed in very critical condition and were given CPR by officers. They were taken to a hospital, where they died.
Late Monday, police charged 18-year-old Des Moines resident Preston Walls with two counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder and gang participation.
Parizek said in a news release that Walls was allegedly armed with a 9mm handgun with an extended ammunition magazine at Starts Right Here. Holmes tried to escort him out of the building when Walls allegedly began shooting at the teenagers.
“Walls, and both deceased victims, are known gang members, belonging to opposing gangs, and the evidence indicates that these crimes were committed as a result of an ongoing gang dispute,” Parizek said in the statement. He did not elaborate on the evidence linking the shootings to rival gangs.
Around 1:20 p.m., according to a witness’ description, police stopped a vehicle near MacRae Park, about 2 miles south of the shooting scene. Walls allegedly fled and was tracked by a K-9 officer to the 1300 block of River Vista Drive, while two other people remained in the car, Parizek said. All three were arrested.
The other two remain in custody until Monday night. At a City Council meeting Monday, Mayor Frank Cownie said the suspects are teenagers.
Month:What people are saying about the Des Moines shooting that killed 2 students
About 20 people gathered in the lobby and emergency room lobby of MercyOne Des Moines Monday afternoon.
Some confirmed to the Des Moines Register that they were friends or family members of the people who died in the shooting, but declined to comment further. They stood, walked, sat and chatted as they waited to hear more news about their loved ones. Many of them were teenagers.
Several cars, as well as police vehicles, were parked in front of the hospital entrance. A crime scene unit was also seen leaving the parking lot.
Neighborhood: “Police cars coming from everywhere”
The Starts Right Here program, 455 SW Fifth St., was founded by local rapper and activist Holmes, whose stage name is Will Keeps.
Nicole Krantz, a coder at MercyOne Des Moines Clinic Administration, said her office, which is next door to Starts Right Here, was locked down immediately after the shooting. He said he saw someone running from the building with police in pursuit, both on foot and in patrol cars.
“We just saw a lot of police cars coming from everywhere,” Krantz said.
“It’s terrifying. We’re all worried,” he said. “We were locked in, obviously. We were all told to stay away from the windows because we weren’t sure if they had taken the boy.”
Krantz said he was taking the rest of the day off due to stress and anxiety.
The shootings are the latest in a wave of violence that has swept metro Des Moines since early December, including at least 10 homicides, the killing by Des Moines police of a 16-year-old who they reportedly raised a gun at them. and several non-lethal shots.
Parizek said that while there was “nothing random” about Monday’s shootings, the specific motive was unclear. It was the eighth homicide in the city of Des Moines in the past two months, he said, “and the why is the one thing sometimes we never know, unless someone tells us the why.”
Month:What we know about Starts Right Here, where 2 students were shot dead and the founder was injured
State and local leaders react to shootings
In a partnership that began in 2021 with Des Moines Public Schools, Starts Right Here helps re-enroll students in the district’s Choice Academy credit recovery program, the school district said in a news release. She said the group supports students who are no longer in a school building because of behavioral issues.
The group serves 40 to 50 students at any given time, and the district offers educational programming. said the statement. Des Moines schools staff were not at Starts Right Here when the shootings occurred, he said.
Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert serves on the board of Starts Right Here and Gov. Kim Reynolds serves on an advisory board.
Reynolds signed a bill expanding charter schools into law in May 2021 in a ceremony at Starts Right Here. In a statement Monday, she said she was “shocked and saddened to learn about the shooting at Starts Right Here.” I have seen firsthand how Will Keeps and his staff work to help at-risk children through this alternative education program. My heart breaks for them, these children and their families. Kevin and I are praying for their safe recovery.”
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tweeted that he was “following reports of a shooting in Des Moines at Starts Right Here…”
“Thank you to the first responders and law enforcement for your quick response,” he wrote. “Praying for all those affected.”
Des Moines Schools Interim Superintendent Matt Smith said in a statement that school officials were waiting to learn more details, but that “we are saddened to learn of another act of gun violence, especially one that affects a organization that works closely with some of our students,” adding, “Our thoughts are with the victims of this incident and their families and friends.”
Iowa State Education Association President Mike Beranek called for more effective prevention of gun violence in educational settings.
“Tragedy has hit close to home again. Our hearts go out to the victims, families and school community of Starts Right Here as they endure the unthinkable,” Beranek said in a statement. “We implore our elected leaders to consider effective strategies to eliminate gun violence and find solutions concrete that keep our students, educators and communities safe. Our schools must be bulwarks of safety, not receptacles of violence. This has to end. As a nation we have to recognize that this is (a) social problem that is seeping into our schools.”
Amid a busy day focused on education issues, the Iowa House held a moment of silence for the victims Monday at the request of Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights.
“Just moments ago, two Des Moines students were killed in a shooting at the Starts Right Here nonprofit mentoring program on Southwest Fifth. An adult we believe is in serious condition. I would like to request a moment of silence for to honor the families of those who lost a child today and to honor and uplift Representative Ako Abdul-Samad, who is currently there helping to mend them afterward,” Konfrst said.
Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, also led the Iowa Senate in a moment of silence.
“I’m just asking everyone to take a moment of silence, pray for the families of the victims and the victims, and for the people at this educational institution,” Zaun said.
Will Keeps founded Starts Right Here to combat youth violence
Holmes has said she founded Starts Right Here to help prevent youth violence. He said he was born on the South Side of Chicago and became involved with a gang there after traumatic events in his childhood.
“I thought the streets were my family,” he said as one of the hosts of the Des Moines Register Storytellers Project in 2018. “I thought these people on the streets would support me more than my family. I thought they would support me I would protect more than my own family would.”
Then he saw a friend shot and suffered a beating that nearly killed him, leaving him angry and aggressive, he said.
He brought those emotions to Iowa, he said, as well as his career as a rapper. But when his children challenged him to write a song about “what’s going on in the community,” he said, he came up with one that was about “opening up people on each side to hear each other and understand each other.”
It opened his eyes to the possibilities of change.
“You see, when I subtracted the negativity from my life and added hope and multiplied it to the people around me, I saw the division in my city begin to fade away,” he said. “It helped me be a more positive influence in my community.”
Writers Virginia Barreda, Samantha Hernandez and F. Amanda Tugade contributed to this article.
