Witnesses Differ with Police on I.C. Shooting Details

[Blue Gardener]

I don't know what to make of this whole incident. I know something like this was bound to happen. There has been escalating tension around Iowa City with what appears to be an increasing, and sometimes aggressive, homeless population. I trust Sheriff Pulkrabek to get to the truth of the matter. He's a good guy.

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/51632422.html

IOWA CITY - Two men who watched a Johnson County deputy shoot a homeless man to death on Friday night tell a story that's sharply different from the account police have so far provided.
The 26-year-old homeless man was not wielding a knife and did not lunge at anyone, said Brock Brones and Mike Tibbetts, both of Iowa City.

Law enforcement's story:

"It started, police said, when a patron and his wife left the Hawkeye Hideaway on Prentiss Street and saw a 26-year-old man fiddling with bags of cans and bottles in the alley next to City Electric. An argument ensued, police said, and the 26-year-old, who is homeless, stabbed the patron, who friends identified as John Bohnenkamp, a University of Iowa maintenance worker and a regular at the Hawkeye Hideaway.
In a statement, the Iowa City Police Department said that based on preliminary information, "the deputy confronted the knife-wielding transient. The transient ignored the deputy's repeated commands to drop the knife. Instead, the armed transient advanced threateningly toward the already injured Iowa City resident and was shot by the deputy."

[Condem]

1. I haven't seen all the details, Blue.

But I can god-damned guarantee you it started at Los Cocos.

[Blue Gardener]

2. That's where the next shooting will be

The City Council needs to do something about the increasing violence downtown, and on the south side. You're not even safe going to Hy-Vee anymore. There was a woman in the parking lot at Waterfront Hy-Vee the other day hitting people up for money to "go home". One woman who wouldn't give her money got in her car, only to have the crazy woman start yelling at her and pounding on the window. This is not an isolated incident.

[cyberswede]

3. K-mart, too

I know a police officer who has told her 79-year old mother not to shop at K-mart unless someome goes with her. I guess there have been some purse snatching incidents there.

[Blue Gardener]

4. I don't go to K Mart either

I'll stick with shopping in Coralville.