CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A jury has convicted a 22-year-old Iowa man of killing his parents and his sister at their home in Cedar Rapids. Alexander Jackson was convicted Wednesday of three counts of first-degree murder. He had called police in June 2021 to report that an intruder had shot him and his father at the family’s Cedar Rapids home. Officers found the victims dead from multiple gunshot wounds and Alexander Jackson with a gunshot wound to his foot. Prosecutors alleged he shot himself. The shootings happened after Jackson’s father told him to get a job or move out. Sentencing is March 3.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Des Moines police chief says a shooting at a educational program that left two students dead and the organization’s founder injured should be understood as “tragic, sad and pointless.” The shooting Monday at the Starts Right Here educational program killed two teens — 18-year-old Gionni Dameron and 16-year-old Rashad Carr, They were trying to rebuild their lives with help from the organization. Will Keeps, the founder of the program designed to help teens who didn’t succeed at traditional schools, was injured in the shooting and remained in a hospital Wednesday. Police charged 18-year-old Preston Walls, a program participant, with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of criminal gang participation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic National Committee panel has voted to give New Hampshire and Georgia more time to make changes that would allow both to be part of a revamped group of five states leading off the party’s presidential primary starting next year. But even as they voted to extend the deadline until June 3, members of the DNC rules committee complained about New Hampshire’s ongoing feud with the national party over the new calendar. The committee previously voted to replace Iowa in the leadoff spot with South Carolina, and have New Hampshire and Nevada go second, followed by Georgia and Michigan. Its latest vote Wednesday night gives New Hampshire and Georgia extra time to comply with those changes.
LE MARS, Iowa (AP) — An 84-year-old Iowa man who was sentenced to life in prison last year for killing his stepson has died in prison. The Iowa Department of Corrections announced this week that Thomas Knapp died Thursday of natural causes. He had been housed at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center for a chronic illness. Knapp was convicted in September of first-degree murder in the shooting death of 51-year-old Kevin Juzek in their rural Merrill home. He was also convicted of beating his now ex-wife before just before the shooting. Prosecutors said Knapp shot Juzek as he was trying to protect his mother.
