The Waterloo City Council will vote today to change the current policy requiring “critical municipal employees” to live within 10 miles of City Hall. The proposal would require police officers, public works employees, and forestry staff to live within 30 miles of City Hall. Firefighters have already been exempted from the restrictions. A majority of council members last week indicated they favored expanding the residency zone at the request of department heads, who said the current limit is more restrictive than Iowa’s other large cities and hurts recruitment efforts. The original limitation policy was passed in 1981 and has been amended twice since, the last time in 2006.
Cedar Falls Police said a 25-year-old man attacked two people early Saturday morning. It happened around 4 o’clock in the 2300 block of Center Street. Officers found two people with injuries. One was treated at the scene, the other was taken to the hospital. Both identified Kane Swehla as their attacker. With the help of Black Hawk County Deputies, officers located Swehla about two hours after the attack. He faces five charges, including three felonies including domestic abuse assault and first degree burglary.
Cedar Falls Police say they’ve captured a man accused of damaging a car, smashing windows and kicking in a door. It all happened after 3 o’clock early Saturday morning in the 700 block of Main Street in Cedar Falls. Police said a woman called reporting a man trying to break into her home. She told officers the man broke several windows, kicked in the door to the home and damaged her car parked in the driveway. The suspect ran from the scene before officers arrived, but a short time later, police arrested 36-year-old James Lee Altman Jr. Altman is now facing felony charges of 2nd Degree Burglary and 2nd Degree Criminal Mischief.
One woman was hospitalized following a shooting incident in Waterloo early Sunday morning. Just before 5 o’clock, Waterloo police responded to a report of a shooting at 114 Edwards Street. Officers discovered a 27-year-old woman had been shot. The woman was transported to UnityPoint Health-Allen Hospital via ambulance. Her condition was described as serious, but stable. No other information was released.
A 20-year-old man was arrested and charged with attempted murder, and other charges, following a shooting incident at Westdale Court Apartments on Saturday night. Dondre’ Davon Lee was arrested yesterday morning and charged with five counts of attempted murder, along with one count each of first-degree burglary, going armed with intent, and carrying weapons. At around 6:30 Saturday evening, Cedar Rapids Police were sent to a report of a shooting at the apartment complex on 20th Avenue SW. Lee is accused of shooting at five people inside a unit at the complex, hitting a 43-year-old man in the arm as well as causing damage to the door of the unit. That was in the evening; at about 2 o’clock that morning, Lee was the victim of a stabbing. Officers said that Lee’s mother, 34-year-old Dominique Lee, stabbed her son in the head. She was charged with domestic assault causing bodily injury with a dangerous weapon and providing false information. Officers do not believe the stabbing and the shooting are related incidents. Both mother and son were being held at the Linn County Jail as of yesterday.
Iowa health authorities say four more deaths and another 441 coronavirus cases have been reported in the state in the most-recent 24-hour period. The Iowa Department of Public Health said the state has had 685 COVID-19 deaths and 25,865 cases of the virus as of mid-morning yesterday. More than a quarter million Iowans have been tested for the coronavirus.
One person was killed and two others injured in a two-vehicle accident in Bremer County Saturday. 75-year-old Douglas Martin of Des Moines was southbound on County Road V56 in a minivan when he ran the stop sign at the intersection of V56 and Iowa Highway 3. Two individuals were westbound in an SUV and struck Martin’s vehicle…they were treated at an Oelwein hospital for minor injuries. Martin had to be extricated from the minivan and was airlifted to UnityPoint Health Allen Hospital in Waterloo, where he later died as a result of his injuries.
Linn County deputies have arrested a 30-year-old Shellsburg man on charges related to a two-car collision that killed a Cedar Rapids woman on April 1st. Bryce Wagehoft has been charged with vehicular homicide under the influence, vehicular homicide recklessness, third-offense operating while intoxicated, driving while barred and possession of drug paraphernalia. The arrest followed a head-on crash in a construction area west of Cedar Rapids that killed 43-year-old Dawn Elaine Stout, who was driving east.
Davenport police have charged a man with murder in connection with the death of a woman who was shot on May 31 as she got into her car to leave a protest. Police charged 21-year-old Parker Belz of Davenport with first-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Italia Marie Kelly. She had joined in a protest over the death of George Floyd after getting off work at a restaurant but was getting in a vehicle to leave because the gathering outside a Walmart had turned unruly. She died of a single shot in the back and was pronounced dead at a hospital. Belz was held in the Scott County Jail.
A 32-year-old man is facing a first-degree murder charge after a fatal stabbing in Bedford in southwest Iowa. The Iowa Department of Public Safety said the stabbing was reported around 11 o’clock Saturday night. 62-year-old Penny Sue Godfirnon of Bedford, died. Christian Andrew May, also of Bedford, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder and willful injury. He is being held in the Taylor County Jail.
