Des Moines shooting: Two students killed and one injured in shooting at Starts Here charter school, police say

Des Moines, Iowa – Two teenage students were killed and a man seriously injured in what police said was a targeted shooting at an alternative education program that was designed to keep at-risk youth out of trouble, police said. The injured man has been identified as the founder of the program – a rapper who left a life of violence and was dedicated to helping young people in Des Moines.

Police said three people were arrested shortly after the shooting of the educational program called “It Starts Right Here”. Des Moines Mayor Frank Cooney identified the injured adult as William Holmes—who goes by the stage name Will Keeps—and said the victims and those arrested were all teenagers.

“This means that five families of teens were affected by youth gun violence within minutes on a Monday afternoon, right here in our capital,” Cooney said. “This is a growing and troubling phenomenon in our country, and one we’ve seen often in the past and again today in Des Moines.”

Kony held a minute’s silence for the victims. He said he spoke to their family members. “But there is no one who can say that it will ease their pain. Nothing can be said to bring them back, those senselessly killed.”

Starts Right Here is a Des Moines School District educational program. Police said emergency crews were called to the school, located in a shopping mall, shortly before 1 p.m. Officers arrived to find two seriously injured students, and immediately began CPR. The two students died in hospital. The adult, who was later identified by the mayor as Keeps, was in a serious condition, and police said he was undergoing surgery Monday night.

About 20 minutes after the shooting, police said officers stopped a vehicle matching witness descriptions about 2 miles (3.22 km) away and arrested 3 people. Police said one person escaped from the vehicle, but officers tracked that person down with a K-9.

“The crash was definitely targeted. It wasn’t random. There was nothing random about this,” Sgt. Paul Parizek said. But he said the motive for the shooting is unknown.

Starts Right Here, which helps at-risk youth in grades nine through twelve, was founded in 2021 by Keeps.

“The school is designed to pick up the slack and help children who need help the most,” Parizek said. Police did not say if the detained teens were students in the program.

The Greater Des Moines Partnership, the area’s economic and community development organization, says on its website that Keeps came to Des Moines about 20 years ago from Chicago, where he “lived in a world filled with gangs and violence” before finding therapy through music.

Starts Right Here, the partnership said, “seeks to encourage and educate young people living in disadvantaged and oppressive circumstances using arts, entertainment, music, hip-hop, and other programs. It also teaches financial literacy, helps students prepare for job interviews, and improves their communication skills. The ultimate goal is to break Barriers of fear, intimidation, and other harmful factors that lead to feelings of deprivation, forgetfulness, and rejection.”

According to the program’s website, one of the Keeps songs, “Wake Up Iowa” sends the message that “violence and hate aren’t Iowa’s way, instead, we need to learn from the mistakes of other cities, so we don’t finish until violence and crime have destroyed them.”

The school’s website says that 70% of the students it serves are minorities, and it has had 28 alumni since its inception. The school district said the program serves 40 to 50 students at any given time. The district said there were no district employees at the site at the time of the shooting.

Interim Superintendent Matt Smith said in a statement: “We are saddened to learn that another act of gun violence has occurred, especially one affecting an organization that works closely with some of our students. We are still waiting to learn more details, but our thoughts are with the victims of this accident, their families and friends.

Gov. Kim Reynolds, who serves on the Starts Right Here advisory board, said she was “shocked and saddened to hear about the shooting.” According to the program’s website, Des Moines Police Chief Dana Weingert is on the Starts Right Here board.

“I have seen firsthand how hard Will Keeps and his crew have worked to help vulnerable children through this alternative educational program,” Reynolds said in a statement. “My heart goes out to them, these children and their families.”

Nicole Krantz said her office near the school was closed immediately after the shooting, and she saw someone run from the building with police pursuing on foot and in patrol cars.

“We just saw a lot of police cars pouring in from everywhere,” Krantz told the Des Moines Register. “It’s terrifying. We’re all worried. We’re locked out, obviously. We were all told to stay away from the windows because we weren’t sure if they’d caught the guy.”

The shooting was the sixth in the United States this year in which a person was injured or killed, but the first in terms of fatalities, according to Education Week, which tracks school shootings. The site said 51 school shootings last year resulted in injuries or deaths, and there have been 150 shootings since 2018. In the worst school shooting last year, 21 people were killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

And in a separate shooting outside a Des Moines high school this past March, a student was killed and two other teens were badly injured. Ten people—between the ages of 14 and 18 at the time of the shooting—were subsequently charged. Five of them pleaded guilty to various charges related to the shooting.

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Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. Associated Press writers Jim Salter in O’Fallon, Missouri and Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, contributed to this report.