In the pre-dawn hours of November 2, 2016, two Des Moines-area police officers were killed in what authorities described as ambush-style attacks. The sequence began shortly after 1:00 a.m. when Officer Justin Martin was shot in his vehicle in Urbandale. About 20 minutes later, two miles away at Merle Hay Road and Sheridan Avenue, 38-year-old Sergeant Anthony David Beminio was ambushed and fatally shot while seated alone in his patrol car as he was responding to Martin’s shooting. Beminio, an 11-year veteran of the Des Moines Police Department, was taken to a local hospital where he died of his injuries.

Investigators identified 46-year-old Scott Michael Greene of Urbandale as the sole suspect that same day after a witness description led them to his vehicle. Greene turned himself in to a Department of Natural Resources officer in Dallas County around 9:30 a.m., was released from a hospital for a pre-existing condition, and was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Greene had prior confrontations with police and had recently been ordered by a judge to move out of his mother’s home amid elder abuse concerns.

Did anyone in the Des Moines area see activity near Merle Hay Road and Sheridan Avenue just before or after 1:20 a.m. on November 2, 2016?