Police charge 6 teens in shooting outside Iowa high school

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(NewsNation) — Police charged six teenagers with murder in connection to the shooting at an Iowa school that killed a 15-year-old boy and seriously wounded two teenage girls.

Des Moines Police on Tuesday named the suspects as Octavio Lopez, 17; Henry Valladares-Amaya, 17; Manuel Buezo, 16; Romero Perdomo, 16; Alex Perdomo, 15; and Nyang Chamdual, 14. All are from Des Moines. The School District didn’t say whether they were students at East High School, where the shooting happened.

All six are charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. All suspects were in custody within several hours of the shooting, police said.

Police said on Facebook that this was a drive-by shooting, and the boy who died, who didn’t go to East High School, was the intended target.

Both the 16- and 18-year old, who do attend East, remain hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, police said. Police did not name the victims.

“While this incident occurred outside of a school, it could have occurred in any one of our neighborhoods,” police said.

Classes were canceled at East High School Tuesday, and the ACT, as well as parent-teacher conferences, were postponed. Although the school was temporarily locked down, students were dismissed on time.

Speaking to NewsNation affiliate WOI-TV , teacher Kyla Nahno Kerchee said she’s still trying to process what happened.

“I’ve never been in this situation before and I hope no one else ever has to be,” she said.

Des Moines police Chief Dana Wingert went to the school after the shooting and expressed frustration at the violence, according to WOI-TV.

“Unfortunately, what happened here today was just another pointless tragedy in our community,” Wingert told WOI-TV. “People (are) using firearms to settle their differences.”

This marks Des Moines’ fourth homicide of 2022, WOI-TV reported.

Superintendent Thomas Ahart said school shootings have “become too common” and said that “real change to gun laws and access would go a long way to help us.”

“Our staff and students,” he said, “are forced to train for these incidents and the trauma associated with the repeated drills and incidents will remain with them for years to come. It’s unfortunate that our state and our country have become a place where firearms are far too easily accessible.”