Waterloo Police are investigating a shooting that left one man dead early yesterday morning. It happened near the intersection of Dane and East 4th Streets just before 4:30 a.m. Police found an adult male suffering from gunshot wounds. He was taken by ambulance to Unity Point-Allen Hospital where he later died. Police are continuing to seek out and talk to witnesses. Anyone with information is asked to call Waterloo Police.
Authorities say a man fatally shot a relative on Christmas Day in a rural Waterloo home. Black Hawk County Sheriff’s deputies responded around 4:30 Christmas afternoon after a resident called 911 to report that there had been a shooting between family members. 43-year-old Chad Buck was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Deputies determined that there was an argument before the shooting at Buck’s home.
Cedar Rapids police responded to a downtown shots fired call just before 12:30 early yesterday morning…it happened in the area of 1st Street East and 1st Avenue. Authorities say a window at United Fire Group had been shot out, and shell casings were found at the scene. No arrests have been made, and investigation continues.
One firefighter suffered non-life-threatening injuries while responding to a chimney fire in Dubuque. It happened Christmas Day in the 2700 block of Balboa Street. Crews arriving on the scene found flames in the attic. The fire produced extensive damage to the home. One person living there managed to escape. Firefighters remained on the scene for several hours investigating the cause and putting out additional hot spots.
The Waterloo Black Hawks took a win on the Sioux City home ice Saturday night, edging the Musketeers 4-3. The Hawks take to the Young Arena ice tonight for a game against Lincoln; the puck drops just after 7 p.m.
After about only seven months on the job, Waterloo’s police chief has applied for the same position in Miami, Florida. Joel Fitzgerald Sr. is one of 36 people seeking the job. Fitzgerald started work June 1st as Waterloo’s first black police chief. Miami’s current police chief has been on the job for three years and announced plans to retire next month. Before coming to Iowa, Fitzgerald, who holds a doctorate degree in business administration from Northcentral University, had been chief deputy for the Philadelphia County Sheriff’s Office, and before that had been the police chief in Fort Worth, Texas.
Iowa Fourth District Congressman Steve King has filed a complaint with the House Ethics Committee against House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, asking for an investigation on why he was dismissed from his committee assignments last year. King filed the complaint last Wednesday, saying McCarthy removed him from his duties without due process. This came after King was quoted in the New York Times. In his complaint, King said he did not violate U.S. law, the Code of Official Conduct or congressional precedent…and says he filed the complaint so McCarthy could have due process, something King notes was denied to him. King has served in Congress for 18 years. He will be succeeded by fellow Republican Randy Feenstra on January 3.
Authorities say 20 to 25 train cars derailed near Des Moines after a small bridge collapsed Christmas morning in the northeast part of the county. It closed roads in the area for nearly 12 hours. Two of the derailed tank cars leaked octane, a gasoline additive. Hazmat teams were on the ground to stop the leaks, according to a spokesperson with Union Pacific Railroads. The incident happened around 5:30 a.m. Other cars were carrying lumber, liquid petroleum gas, and soybean meal.
A Center Point woman was behind bars on Christmas Day after a head-on collision in Linn County. 33-year-old Jennifer Buelow is facing charges of OWI and texting while driving in connection with the incident near the intersection of Alice Road and North Center Point Road. The Linn County Sheriff’s Office says Buelow crossed the center of the road and hit a second vehicle driven by 55-year-old Kelly Burk of Cedar Rapids. Both vehicles came to rest in the east side ditch. Burk was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries…Buelow was taken to the Linn County Jail.
A reprieve from a devastating surge of the coronavirus across the Upper Midwest after Thanksgiving has given cautious relief to health officials, though they worry that infections remain rampant and Christmas and New Year’s holiday gatherings could reignite the pandemic. Johns Hopkins researchers say states in the northern stretches of the Midwest and Great Plains have seen average daily cases drop in the past two weeks, with decreases ranging from 20% in Iowa to 66% in North Dakota. Some epidemiologists believe the most compelling factor for many people who redoubled efforts to prevent infections may be that they experienced the virus on a personal level.
A broken water distribution system in a downtown Cedar Rapids high rise apartment caused damage across multiple floors and displaced around 35 residents Christmas afternoon. Cedar Rapids fire officials were notified of a water flow alarm at The Roosevelt, located at 200 First Avenue NE, just after 3:30 p.m. Friday. Firefighters located the issue on the fifth floor of the building after noting water flowing from underneath the door to one of the building’s apartment units, as well as around two inches of standing water in the hall. An investigation determined the source of the water issue to be two broken pipes along with a broken sprinkler system pipe. Firefighters believe that a window left open while a tenant was out of town during the below zero weather around Christmas was the cause of the pipe breaks. Officials said people in 22 units from the second through fifth floors of the building were displaced by the damage caused by the water.
