An age 18-year-old Preston Walls from West Des Moines was arrested and charged with murder after he allegedly opened fire on two kid participants in the Starts Right Here mentorship programme
All this happened during a gang quarrel, killing both of them and injuring the program’s creator and president.ย A press release from the Des Moines Police Department stated that on Monday, Preston M. Walls was detained on suspicion of two counts of murder, one act of attempted murder, and one count of criminal gang participation.
Who is Preston M Walls aka Will Keeps Des Moines Iowa shooter, his age, family, school, victims, picture
Des Moines Police Department detectives have made an arrest in this investigation. 18-year-old Des Moines resident Preston Walls has been charged with the following offenses:
– Murder โ 1st Degree (two counts)
– Attempted Murder
– Criminal Gang Participation— DSM Police Scanner๐ (@ScannerDSM) January 24, 2023
After some digging, I was right
Preston Walls, the at-risk high school-age kid'
Was the shooter, stolen gun, not an AR, and defiantly looks like a 'high school-age kid' to me ๐คจAnd the beat goes on~#BLM pic.twitter.com/liUueWAiFk
— EdoIsHip (@HipIsEdo) January 24, 2023
The Starts Right Here programme is where Rashad Carr, 16, and Gionni Dameron, 18, both from Des Moines, Iowa, were killed by Walls. Des Moines police spokesman Sergeant Paul Parizek told the Register that the department has information proving that all of the suspects were in fact programme participants.
William Holmes, the program’s head also known as Will Keeps, was shot and is currently in critical condition in a hospital.ย According to a press release issued by Parizek on Tuesday morning, the other two suspects who were arrested on Monday have been freed without charges.
What led up to the shooting in Des Moines?
The announcement states that Preston Walls brought a 9mm handgun with an extended ammunition magazine capable of holding up to 31 bullets into the common area of Starts Right Here, a mentoring programme for at-risk adolescents.
Although Holmes made an effort to remove Walls from the scene, Walls allegedly pushed away and resumed firing at the two juveniles. Also hit by gunfire was Holmes, who had been standing close by.
A car that had fled the site of the shooting was later stopped by police, and the statement stated that shortly thereafter, Walls was located and taken into jail without further incident.
Further information was included in criminal complaints filed on Tuesday, including allegations that Preston Walls pursued one of the teenager victims who had tried to flee the scene and continued firing at them after they had fallen. When police found Walls’ gun, it only had three rounds left, according to Parizek’s press release, so it’s unclear how many shots Walls fired in total.
As far as the police are concerned, this whole thing started with a fight between rival gangs. However, they did not give any other information.
Does Preston Walls have any criminal record?
There is evidence in Walls’ court file that he has had previous run-ins with law enforcement while armed. At the time of the incident, he was on probation for two separate narcotics charges. Also, in June, he was charged with interfering with West Des Moines police and public intoxication involving guns, both of which landed him on supervised relief.
Records reveal that approximately a month before the shooting, he was admitted into the state’s Youthful Offender Program, a diversion programme for criminal courts.
According to the police department’s press release, Walls removed the GPS ankle monitor that was a condition of his pretrial release on the weapons charge from June 16 minutes before the incident on Monday.
To know more about Preston Walls, do follow The SportsGrail on a regular and frequent basis.
ALSO READ: Xana Kernodle was awake at the time she was stabbed by Bryan Kohberger