DES MOINES (IRN) – A Des Moines police officer accidentally fired his gun inside an office at the Des Moines International Airport while he was practicing his “quick draw.” The Des Moines Register reports 23-year-old officer Brady Pratt was inside an office at the airport Wednesday when he drew his gun from his holster to practice “his quick draw skills” and it discharged. Another officer witnessed the incident. No one was hurt.
SHELL ROCK, IA (IRN) – More layoffs have been announced at a northeast Iowa farm equipment plant. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports officials at the Unverferth Manufacturing plant in Shell Rock won’t say how many workers will be laid off. The Ohio-based company makes grain wagons and pull-type crop sprayers. The company says the sagging agriculture economy is behind the layoffs.
MAHASKA COUNTY, IA (IRN) – A man found dead by a hunter near Oskaloosa has been identified. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation reports testing identified the man as 34-year-old Jeffrey Allen Versteegh of Oskaloosa. Versteegh was reported missing in July of 2015. The cause and manner of death have not been determined.
MITCHELLVILLE, IA (IRN) – A Des Moines man who was brutally beaten during a carjacking is back home in Iowa, according to KCCI-TV. Mike Wasike was left for dead by three teenagers in the middle of a Des Moines street in 2013. Wasike’s wife has been traveling to Oklahoma for more than two years to visit her husband in a Tulsa rehabilitation facility. Wasike, a former credit analyst at Wells Fargo who earned an MBA as a student in Kenya, still can’t talk, walk, or eat on his own. His attackers are in prison.
MONTEZUMA, IA (IRN) – A former sheriff has been charged in connection to a state investigation that accused him of mismanaging money. The Des Moines Register reports former Poweshiek County Sheriff Tom Sheets was arrested for second-degree theft. The Department lost about $312,000 during the time Sheets was sheriff. He’s accused of improper disbursements, including repeated use of a county gas card for personal use.
DES MOINES (IRN) – Someone dropped a gold coin into a Salvation Army red kettle outside a Des Moines grocery store, according to WHO-TV. A one-ounce South African Krugerrand was discovered Tuesday inside a kettle at the Hy-Vee on Valley West Drive while collecting Monday’s donations. The coin is worth roughly $1,000.