By Travis M. Andrews, Derek Hawkins, Ben Guarino and Mark Berman
Two police officers (click here) in central Iowa were shot and killed Wednesday in a pair of “ambush-style attacks,” the Des Moines Police Department said.
Police offered few initial details on the shootings, saying that the investigation was just getting underway, but they said both officers were sitting in their squad cars when they were shot and killed.
Authorities in the Des Moines area appeared shaken by the double shooting, which came during a year that has seen bloody attacks on officers in cities like Dallas and Baton Rouge, assaults that fueled a sense of anxiety among law enforcement nationwide.
“It doesn’t look like there was any interaction between these officers and whoever the coward is that shot them while they sat in their car,” Sgt. Paul Parizek, a Des Moines police spokesman, said during a briefing early Wednesday, before briefly choking back emotion as another officer reached a hand out to show him support....
