Ex-Cyclone Beechum charged in shooting

Former Iowa State basketball player Hurl Beechum was charged with three felonies after an altercation led to the shooting of a 21-year old man in Glenwood.

Beechum, 42, has been charged with intimidation with a dangerous weapon, going armed with intent, willful injury and two aggravated misdemeanor assault counts in the shooting of Colton McDaniel, 21, after a fight Sunday.

McDaniel is charged with a serious misdemeanor - assault causing bodily injury - while Denver Cook, 18, faces a felony charge of willful injury as well as an assault charge.

The fight erupted on the property of Richard Hutchinson, who is Beechum's stepfather, shortly before 5:45 p.m. after a group of six teenagers and young adults walked by the residence, according to an affidavit from an Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agent.

One girl, a minor, used a racial slur while on the phone with her boyfriend, according to the affidavit. Hutchinson and his wife, who were in the driveway cleaning out their vehicle, heard the slur and 'attempted to verbally correct the group of individuals about the inappropriateness of the slur,” wrote special agent Daniel Dawson.

Beechum, who played at Iowa State in the late 1990s, was inside the home and heard the confrontation outside and went out to assist Hutchinson before Cook punched Hutchinson in the face and rendered him unconscious. McDaniel and Cook then attacked Beechum, punching and kicking him, before he fled the attack.

According to a report in The Des Moines Register, Beechum returned shortly thereafter and fired a shot at McDaniel while the 21-year old was attempting to assist Hutchinson. The 9 mm shot pierced McDaniel's leg and when authorities arrived, Beechum said according to the affidavit, 'They jumped us so I had to shoot him.”

Mills County Attorney Tricia McSorley also told The Register on Wednesday Beechum is expected to turn himself in within the next 48 hours because he is currently at his home in Arizona.

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