DES MOINES, Iowa — Des Moines police said there were six separate shooting incidents between Friday night and Monday morning, in the latest example of gun violence in the city.
Four people were injured, and officials are emphasizing the need to quell shootings before this becomes more common.
That's would be concerning no matter what, but police said it's even more unusual to see this flurry of activity in the middle of February.
"Anytime you have that many shooting incidents in one time, it is typically summer activity, but we need to kind of get that piece out of our minds and start figuring out as a community, what we can do to prevent these from incidents occurring," said DMPD Sgt. Paul Parizek.
All of the shooting victims are expected to survive, but authorities are concerned that if this pattern holds up, others might not be as lucky.
"People are surviving these injuries, but we know that we can't sustain that trend," Parizek said. "People are going to die if there continues to be gunfire, we need to do what we can to stop it."
According to EveryStat research, 489 people in Iowa are wounded by guns in an average year. Across the country, nearly 85,000 people total are hurt by gun violence. So while Des Moines isn't alone in dealing with this problem, the city is working to address it locally. One of those methods is a partnership with local nonprofit Creative Visions for a program called "Cure Violence."
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"Using principles of public health, you identify people in places where gun violence may be likely, and you try and interrupt that before it happens," said Josh Mandelbaum, a member of the Des Moines City Council.
The Cure Violence initiative isn't the only tool, though. Mandelbaum says addressing shooting deaths in the city requires a multi-angle approach.
"We're gonna do everything we can, both from the enforcement side but also from the interruption side, and from the public health side to try and address this epidemic," he said.
Iowa averages 270 shooting deaths per year, according to EveryStat.
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