Mount Mercy cross-country runner injured in Thursday shooting

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Mount Mercy University cross-country runner was injured when he was caught in a shooting Thursday afternoon while on his way to practice.

The 21-year-old student, whose name was not released, is expected to make a full recovery, according to campus officials.

The shooting happened just before 4 p.m. near Hazel Drive and Elmhurst Drive NE. Nearby schools Mount Mercy University, Regis Middle and Garfield Elementary all went into lock down.

Cedar Rapids police believe the student was inadvertently caught in gunfire between two or more shooters.

In an email sent to parents, Regis Principal Josh Gredys said the individual who was shot was transported to Regis “for safety and care. Due to the nature of this situation, students may have seen the injured person, in addition to blood from the wound.”

The injured Mount Mercy student was treated at the middle school before being transported by ambulance to a hospital. Police say his injuries are not life-threatening.

“We are proud of the Regis Middle School staff, students and families for following our lockdown procedures immediately and doing exactly what they needed to do to be safe. Our safety processes include drills of this nature which proved very effective today,” the email from Gredys reads.

A play performance scheduled for Thursday night at the middle school was canceled, and families were informed that the school counselor as well as other counselors and staff would be available for any students who needed support.

Mount Mercy University President Todd Olson said university officials also will be providing counseling support for students, faculty and staff, and will be taking extra precautions for students who travel in the area — including transporting students to and from the university’s athletic facilities, which are a few blocks to the south of where the shooting occurred.

He also said there will be increased patrols in the area over the next few days, both by campus security and Cedar Rapids police.

Olson told reporters that campus officials were “frightened” and “very troubled” by Thursday’s shooting, with evidence suggesting more than a dozen gunshots were fired.

“We work so hard to build a campus community that is supportive, welcoming and safe for our students, for faculty and staff, and certainly for our neighbors as well,” Olson said Thursday afternoon. “And so when something like this happens, it is frankly disturbing. We certainly want to see an end to violence throughout our community. And we certainly don’t want to have violence impede or interfere with or create very difficult situations for anyone in our community.”

Mount Mercy freshman Amna Altaei, 18, said she was in class listening to her teacher talk about the history and status of the right to bear arms in the United States when students began receiving calls on their phones from the university alerting them to an active shooter in the area and instructing them to shelter in place.

“It’s kind of ironic,” Altaei said, adding she feels her generation has become “desensitized to shootings.”

“The teacher literally kept going on with the lesson as the alarm was going on,” Altaei said. “Like we’re just so used to shootings. It’s become so normal for us. … We can’t really do anything about it. We just have to carry on with our lives.”

Despite her teacher’s efforts, she said students stopped paying attention to the lecture and began calling their parents and friends and roommates to make sure they were safe.

Patti Ferguson lives near where the shooting occurred. She said she was awoken from a nap by the sound of gunfire.

“It was loud, very loud,” Ferguson said. “It went, ‘bang, bang, bang,’ a slight gap and then it would repeat” with a rapid succession of gunshots.

She said her neighbor turned over video footage to police from his doorbell camera that reportedly captured the shooting and three or four individuals piling out of a vehicle.

Several homes in the area received damage from bullets, according to Cedar Rapids police.

No one has been arrested in connection with the shooting, but police have said they don’t believe there is an ongoing threat. They asked that anyone who has information or video surveillance footage of the shooting call police at 319-286-5491.

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