Interim chief updates council on shootings

CEDAR RAPIDS - Four shootings here in less than a month, with several people injured and one dead, prompted City Manager Jeff Pomeranz to call on Interim Police Chief Tom Jonker to make a public report to the City Council on Tuesday night.

Jonker pointed out that the most recent shooting, at an apartment next to Kirkwood Community College on Friday, resulted in an arrest Monday night. He said an arrest is likely in another shooting, though not in a third. Meanwhile, the investigation is continuing into an April 16 homicide at a strip club.

The city is experiencing “an uptick” in verified shooting reports, though, Jonker said. There were three in all of 2010 and 11 the following year, but the total stands at 18 in the first four months of this year. He said the Police Department was using preventive patrols and “intense patrols” in response to the violence.

“Have confidence in us that we're getting the job done,” Jonker asked the council.

Pomeranz said Jonker himself is “very familiar with the streets and with responding to violence as well as leading officers.”

Each of the Police Department's three captains is serving a three-month stint as interim chief during the search for a new permanent chief to replace Greg Graham, who left in January for a job in Florida.