An Iowa City Police officer was “shot multiple times” by a suspect armed with a BB gun on Monday afternoon, according to a statement from the ICPD. The officer fired his weapon, striking the suspect. ICPD has not named either the officer or the suspect. Both were transported to a local hospital and are in stable condition, ICPD reports.
The incident occurred at approximately 3:30 p.m. at the bus stop in front of the Iowa City Transit System building on Riverside Drive, near the intersection of Riverside and Hwy. 1. The officer was investigating a shoplifting incident reported by a business at nearby Gateway One Plaza, when he approached the suspect.
“As the investigation was unfolding, an Iowa City Police Officer was shot multiple times with a weapon and received injuries to his face,” according to the ICPD. The weapon was later determined to be a BB gun.
The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) is investigating the shooting. ICPD automatically turns over investigations of officer-involved shootings to DCI, as a matter of department policy.
This is the second shooting involving ICPD officers this year. In May, two ICPD officers discharged their firearms, wounding a burglary suspect who was attempting to ram them with a truck. Following an investigation by the DCI, Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness decided the shooting was justified, because the two officers had “acted with reasonable force in defending themselves and others.”
Prior to this year, the last time an officer had discharged a weapon in the line of duty was 2011, when an ICPD officer shot a man after he reached for a handgun while officers were conducting a wellness check, following reports that the man was suicidal. That shooting was also determined to be justified by Lyness.
