BTBuzz: Two officers in Iowa slain in ‘ambush-style’ attacks

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Two police officers were shot and killed this morning (Wed., Nov. 2) in Iowa. While this is still a developing story, this is what we know so far.

At around 1 a.m. this morning, police officers from the Urbandale and Des Moines police departments responded to reports of shots fired in the City of Urbandale.

Responding officers arrived to find an Urbandale police officer fatally shot. He has been identified as Officer Justin Martin.

At approximately 1:26 a.m., a Des Moines police officer was found shot in his police unit. The officer was responding to the location of the first shooting.

That officer also succumbed to his injuries. He has been identified as Sgt. Anthony Beminio.

Photo from Urbandale PD Facebook page

Photo from Urbandale PD Facebook page

A suspect was identified as Scott Michael Greene and he was taken into custody.

The motive for the shooting is not known at this time. In a 5 a.m. news conference, the shootings were described as “ambush-style attacks.”

A posting on YouTube is being reported on social media as purportedly having been posted by the suspect. In the video, a subject was asked to leave a football game last month after demonstrating with a confederate flag. The encounter with Urbandale police officers was recorded and posted allegedly by a subject with the same name as the suspect.

According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, there have been 48 officers killed by gunfire this year. The addition of these two officers will make it 50.