5-13-2009 Iowa:Police shot and killed a man in a West Des Moines townhouse Tuesday night. He was reportedly a suspect in a series of home break-ins and at least three sexual assaults in West Des Moines and Waukee over the past several months.
West Des Moines Police Lieutenant Jeff Miller says it happened about 7 P.M. in the Village at Glen Oaks, a gated townhouse complex. "Officers from our department attempted to serve a search warrant," Lieutenant Miller says.
"They knocked on the door several times, announced themselves, as is protocol. No one answered. The door was unlocked, they walked inside, again, announcing themselves. The subject approached them, pointing a firearm at them and the officers shot the subject."
The man was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Miller says the man was a suspect in a string of violent crimes in the metro area dating back to December. "The suspect broke into the residence through a window, broke the window, got inside and sexually assaulted a young girl and then physically attacked the mother," Miller says.
"We had a couple other incidents in West Des Moines where he got in and was either scared off or in the process of entering the apartment was scared off." In one recent incident, a man who lived in the home was hit over the head with a hammer.
In all, Miller says the suspect is linked to six home invasions and eight assaults, including three sexual assaults. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is looking into the fatal shooting. ..News Source.. by Matt Kelley
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IA- Detectives shot 25 times at Harvell
5-19-2009 Iowa:
Three West Des Moines police detectives fired 25 shots at a serial rapist last week after he pointed a blank-firing gun and threatened to kill them, according to a search warrant unsealed this morning.
Adam Harvell, 36, was shot and killed after the detectives took a different search warrant to his townhouse in the Village at Glen Oaks, a gated community southeast of Jordan Creek Town Center.
A second search warrant that pertains to a state investigation into the shooting – which is standard procedure with any officer-involved shooting – was unsealed at about 10:30 a.m. at the request of the Des Moines Register.
The warrant, which was sealed the night of the shooting, gives this account of the incident that began at 6:47 p.m. on May 12:
- A West Des Moines detective knocked at Harvell’s residence at 811 Burr Oaks Drive, unit 406, and repeatedly said “police search warrant.” The detective also yelled “Adam,” but no one responded.
- Detectives entered through the unlocked front door.
- Detectives Bryan Grube, Don Ballard and Jeffrey Lyon went upstairs to the second floor of the home and continued to yell “police search warrant.”
- When they made it to the top of the stairs, the detectives were “immediately confronted” by Harvell, who police said yelled something similar to: “I’m gonna kill you mother-(expletive).”
- A detective “observed the subject raise what appeared to be a handgun and point the handgun toward the officers. The officers observed the gun and fired at the subject,” the warrant said.
- Harvell was struck by an unknown number of bullets and dropped to the floor. He was transported to Iowa Methodist Medical Center, where he died.
Investigators confiscated the following evidence from the home:
- 25 shell casings from the upstairs, bathroom and bedroom. Asked whether all of the shell casing were from weapons fired by the detectives, police Lt. Jeff Miller said in a telephone interview this morning: “I don’t think Harvell fired a shot.”
- Two bullets from a bedroom floor and window sill.
- Swabs of “red stains” from five different locations in the home.
- The blank-firing pistol, case and ammunition.
- Birth control pills, a teddy bear, power cord and Nintendo DS.
Harvell’s girlfriend Laura Maring told Harvell’s family in St. Louis that Harvell may have wanted police to kill him, which is commonly referred to in the police community as “suicide by cop.”
“She told my sister Crystal that she felt this was Adam’s way out,” sister Tamra Harvell said last week. “He wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t take his own life.”
Tamra Harvell said that Maring also told police that Adam Harvell had a fake gun in the home before they executed a search warrant.
Miller has said that whether the gun was real or fake doesn’t matter.
"If a person is foolish enough to do that, then an officer will act accordingly if he believes it's a real weapon," Miller said last week. ..Source.. by JARED STRONG
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