Police: Deadly shooting at youth program was targeted attack

DES MOINES, IOWA >> An 18-year-old who police say was involved in an ongoing gang dispute walked into the common area of an alternative education program for at-risk students and fatally shot two teenagers in a premeditated attack — chasing one of them down and shooting him several more times when he tried to run, according to a charging document released Tuesday.

Police said the shooting on Monday that also left the founder of the Starts Right Here program with life-threatening injuries was a targeted attack. The founder, 49-year-old William Holmes, underwent surgery and was in serious condition.

Police on Tuesday identified those killed as 18-yearold Gionni Dameron and 16-year-old Rashad Carr.

Holmes, an activist and rapper who goes by the stage name Will Keeps, joined a gang as a 13-yearold in Chicago but moved to Iowa more than two decades ago and dedicated his life to helping young people in need, according to his LinkedIn page.

Eighteen-year-old Preston Walls of Des Moines was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of criminal gang participation. He made a brief court appearance

Tuesday, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for Feb. 3.

Walls is jailed on $1 million bond. The Polk County public defender's office, which will provide his attorney, declined comment.

Walls was on supervised release for a weapons charge, and he cut off his ankle monitor 16 minutes before the shooting, police said.

“There was nothing random about this,” Police Sgt. Paul Parizek said.

Last year, Walls was charged with three counts alleging that he knowingly resisted or obstructed a West Des Moines police officer while armed with a firearm and intoxicated, court records show.