By Tim Clifford

Investigators with the Des Moines Police Department are seeking answers in a shooting that occurred mid-day on May 20 in the parking lot of a 7-11 along Pacific Highway. One man was shot and left with life threatening injuries while a small child in the back seat and two other passengers watched in horror.

Just after 1 p.m. a white Lincoln Town Car pulled into the 7-11 at 26007 Pacific Highway South with two men, a female in the passenger seat, and a 3-4 year old toddler in the back seat. After the group had gone into the 7-11 and gotten back into their car a dark colored SUV pulled in and parked one stall away from them.

On the surveillance footage it can be seen that the male driver of this SUV gets out of his car and walks over to talk to the female in the passenger seat of the town car for about 2-3 minutes. Officers do not yet know what was talked about in that time but the driver of the SUV begins to walk away and then suddenly comes back to the car. While speaking with the female passenger again the driver of the SUV suddenly pulled out a handgun and opened fire on the driver of the Town Car, hitting him in the leg.

In order to do this the suspect had to fire past the female passenger inside the vehicle. At this time it is unclear how many shots were actually fired, one or two, but it is believed that at least one bullet must have struck the victim’s femoral artery given the amount of blood lost.

The suspect quickly jumped back into his SUV, now being driven by a female suspect, and they both sped away from the scene.

The female passenger in the Lincoln managed to switch seats with the injured driver and drove the victim to Fire Station 67 at 2238 S. 223 St. in Des Moines. After medics arrived and transported the victim to Harborview Medical Center detectives were informed that the victim would most likely die from the loss of blood. As of 12:30 p.m. on May 21 Harborview has informed investigators that following surgeries throughout the night the victim now will most likely survive his injuries.

“Obviously there are some concerning things here. We’ve got a busy 7-11 store, a lot of people coming and going…vehicle traffic isn’t that far away. You’ve got that 3 to 4-year-old child in the backseat, I mean, holy crap, imagine how that could have turned out. Bullets could go anywhere. They can ricochet; they can fragment and cause a lot of unintended damage as we all know,” explained Sgt. Doug Jenkins with Des Moines PD.

The shooter is described as a light skinned African American, about average height, wearing a colored flannel shirt and jeans. The female driver to the SUV is believed to also be African American but no definitive description was available at this time. It is unclear what make and model the dark colored SUV was and no license plate was available at this time.

Footage from inside the 7-11 and other surveillance cameras in the area is currently being reviewed.
Investigators interviewed the other passengers of the car and so far do not suspect that this shooting was gang-related. There is even still the possibility that the victim and the other passengers had never met the suspects before this incident.