Two killed, another injured after gunshots reported in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS — Two men were found killed and a third seriously injured in a shooting Thursday night outside a northeast Cedar Rapids apartment complex after callers alerted police to hearing numerous gunshots.

Cedar Rapids police officers responded at 8:21 p.m. to the area of 3940 Sherman St. NE. They found three men suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the parking lot of 3960 Sherman St. NE. Two died from their injuries and third man was transported to a hospital with serious injuries. Police as of Friday afternoon had not released their names.

Theresa Freeman, who lives in an apartment near the parking lot where the shooting happened, said nothing like this has happened in the five years she’s lived there.

Freeman said she heard several gunshots while watching TV and went to the window, where she could hear and see sparks from more shots being fired. She said she heard someone yelling at someone to get up. She called the police, and after they arrived she went outside with her neighbors, who were talking about what they’d seen and heard.

More people arrived, some saying they were family members of the people who had been shot, and multiple fights broke out, Freeman said.

“This is severe, scary as hell,” Freeman said. “Everything last night was so chaotic.”

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Myltes Ortiz, who lives in an apartment building on the other side of the parking lot, said he heard the shots but thought they were fireworks. Then he heard sirens and saw the police lights through his window.

“I didn’t know it happened right downstairs,” Ortiz said.

Ortiz said he went outside in time to see a man on a stretcher being lifted into an ambulance. He said the experience scared him, as he regularly walks his dogs there.

“I definitely shook me up a little bit,” Ortiz said. “It just makes you think, what if I was outside with my dog?”

Police said they don’t believe there is an ongoing threat to the public, but had not announced that any arrests has been made.

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