(Updated 4/23) [Radio Iowa] – Authorities are searching for a Cedar Rapids teenager who’s charged with five counts of attempted murder in connection with the shooting near the University of Iowa campus that wounded five people early Sunday.
Iowa City Police Chief Dustin Liston says video evidence shows 17-year-old Damarian Jones was fighting with a group of people, got a gun from someone and during a break in the fight he walked away and fired six times into a large crowd on the Pedestrian Mall. Five people were wounded. Three are University of Iowa students.
Police say three of the wounded have been released from the hospital. One of the hospitalized victims is a woman who was shot in the head and remains in critical condition.
The Iowa City Police Chief says none of the shooting victims were involved in the fight with Jones that preceded the shooting. Authorities say there will be an expanded police presence in downtown Iowa City, starting this weekend.
Mark Bullock is the University of Iowa’s Assistant Vice President for Campus Safety. “The University of Iowa Police Department is going to be providing four additional police officers dedicated downtown who will complement and do co-patrols with the additional officers from the Iowa City Police Department,” he said.
“…We have a beautiful urban campus and it’s our responsibility to work with our partners to ensure that our downtown area is safe.” Iowa City Police Chief Dustin Liston says this weekend’s shooting was tragic, but it was exceedingly rare.
“The City Manager and I and a few of my colleagues were at a meeting with the downtown business owners and one of them…said: ‘It seems like we have been trending in the right direction…Is that just a mirage?’ And I said: ‘Absolutely not,”” Liston said. “In 2020, the City of Iowa City had 57 shootings. In 2025 we had eight.” Liston says the goal is to get the number down to zero.
