COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA (IRN) – Council Bluffs police have arrested the mother and grandmother of a 4-year-old boy injured in a shooting. KMTV reports that 24-year-old Tyleshia Jones, was arrested on charges of child endangerment resulting in serious injury, child neglect and obstructing prosecution. Deborah Jones, 59, the child’s grandmother, was also charged. The women told police they didn’t know how the child was injured, but the boy’s 8-year-old brother eventually admitted to accidentally shooting him after finding a gun in a kitchen drawer. The victim remains in the hospital in critical but stable condition.
DES MOINES (IRN) – The Iowa Department of Agriculture is responding to a probable case of the avian flu in Wright County. The facility is a commercial laying operation with an estimated 1 million birds. Iowa now has 67 cases of the disease in the state.
RED OAK, IA (IRN) – A Red Oak woman came home to find her husband dead after she was released from jail for attacking him. The Red Oak Express reports that Kristen Hughes, 45, was arrested May 17 for domestic abuse after assaulting her husband, Matthew Hughes, by biting and scratching him. Hughes posted bond on May 18 and returned home to find her husband dead. His death has been ruled a suicide. All charges have been dropped.
AMES, IA – (IRN) – An Ames man has been charged in an incident in his home involving a 14-year-old girl. KCCI-TV reports that Michael Lynn Searcy, 54, is charged with assault with intent to commit sexual abuse — sexual assault, dissemination of obscene materials to a minor and providing alcohol to minors. Police said that Searcy was watching the victim and her siblings when he allegedly gave her three alcoholic drinks. He also touched her inappropriately and showed her a pornographic movie.
BEDFORD, IA (IRN) – The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is assisting the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office in relation to the suspicious death of a three-year-old girl in the southwestern Iowa town of Bedford. The child’s father; Charles Hall, 25, and his girlfriend, April Clair, also 25, have been arrested and charged with Child Endangerment.
DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Two people were shot Wednesday night at a home just south of the Drake neighborhood in Des Moines. WHO-TV reports that when officers arrived they found Devan Jones lying in the grass by the house, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Jones says she, her mother, and three friends were at her mother’s apartment when her ex-boyfriend showed up and asked her to step outside to talk, when he shot her. One of Smith’s friends, Cortez Armstrong, was also shot.
BUTLER COUNTY, PA (IRN) – Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum announced Wednesday that he will seek the Republican nomination for President in 2016. Santorum won the 2012 Iowa Caucuses, and was the national runner-up to eventual nominee Mitt Romney. Santorum has already made numerous campaign stops in Iowa, and will be in Davenport today and Council Bluffs on Friday.
DES MOINES (IRN) – Governor Terry Branstad has issued a disaster proclamation for Clarke County in response to recent severe weather. The proclamation also activates the Iowa Individual Assistance Program, which provides grants of up to $5,000 for households that suffered damage.