Fleeing suspect killed in Council Bluffs; two officers injured

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA - Sometimes, when you're a cop, you just never know what the day's gonna bring your way. Council Bluffs Police Officers Jack Price and Greg Schultz got the short end of the stick, when the reported for duty on Tuesday. Along with Officer Mark Stuart, they were in the right place at the right time, when Officer Terry Cozad recognized the man he saw walking down the street as being wanted.

Cozad yelled for a waste of protoplasm, he knew was named John R. Bothwell to stop. Cozad knew that misdemeanor warrants had been issued for the arrest of Bothwell, 33, of Council Bluffs.

But Bothwell took the opportunity to do what he's always done -- to run - a very personal decision that may have been successful in the past, but this time would leave two Council Bluffs police officers injured and Bothwell, himself, a very deserving lump of protoplasm soon attaining ambient temperature.

Cozad got out of his car, called for backup on his radio and began chasing Bothwell on foot. The chase started shortly before 10:55 a.m. just north of Mynster Street, near North Seventh Street. The area is just a couple hundred feet north of one of the city's busiest intersections, that of Seventh and Kanesville.

Bothwell was wanted on suspicion of driving while barred and eluding police, according to Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber, who came to the scene as a precaution against any outside efforts to report the crime in any but a truthful light, and to see the evidence, first hand.

Bothwell ran, as fast as his legs would carry him, in a southwesterly direction, and into the enclosed bay of the area's only drive-through liquor store, Brewski's Beverage, 726 Creek Top St. He apparently intended to escape at any cost, to include car-jacking any vehicle he could find running and available, . . . occupants notwithstanding.

Three officers in patrol cars responded immediately to Cozad's call for backup. Those officers were Jack Price, Greg Schultz and Mark Stuart, who all happened to be close enough to be on the scene within seconds.

At about the time the officers arrived, Wilber said, Bothwell was in the process of forcing his way into a white car in a drive-through bay. The officers were able to get the female driver out of the vehicle and move her away from the car, Wilber said. Wilber said the woman was not injured.

A neighbor said police first used pepper spray on Bothwell. Then, when the woman was out of her car, officers used a Taser to try to subdue Bothwell. The neighbor said he heard Bothwell scream after being hit by the Taser.

But that didn't stop this fine, not-so-upstanding citizen named Bothwell.

He intentionally backed the car into Price, pinning him against a beverage cooler inside the bay.

Price suffered a broken leg and numerous other injuries from being pinned and dragged by the high-jacked white car, said Bluffs Police Chief Keith Mehlin. Schultz hurt his arm, possibly from wrestling with Bothwell while he was still in the car, Wilber said.

A police cruiser blocked Bothwell's path out of the bay, so Bothwell swerved into the other bay.
As Bothwell headed out of the open bay, an officer who was standing near the divider shot twice into the car, the neighbor said. That officer was standing near the front of the car on the passenger side.

Wilber would not say how many shots were fired or who fired the shots.

Witnesses said that after Bothwell was shot, he drove the car across Mynster Street and over a sidewalk on the street's north side. The car hit the front porch of a house and came to a stop.
Police pulled Bothwell from the car, and he was declared dead at the scene.

Wilber said Bothwell was not carrying a gun.

Authorities from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation later checked all of the officers' service weapons and collected two of them, Wilber said. That's routine, he said, so that ballistics checks can be run on the weapons.

Price was in fair condition Tuesday at the Nebraska Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. Schultz was treated at Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs and released.

The state criminal investigators will handle the investigation, Wilber said. The Iowa state medical examiner will perform an autopsy on Bothwell's body this morning in Ankeny, Iowa, he said.

All of the officers involved in the incident will have today off. Chief Mehlin said he will decide later in the week whether any administrative action needs to be taken.

Wilber said that based on preliminary information, he does not think any of the officers did anything wrong.

"The officers should be commended for their actions," Wilber said.

Bothwell, who had an extensive criminal record, had been released in August from a Nebraska prison after serving a one-year sentence for third-degree arson.

The most recent shooting death involving Bluffs officers had been in December 2004, when the department's tactical team raided the home of a Mills County man. The man, Brett Pace, was wanted on a warrant. During the raid, a Bluffs officer shot Pace twice in the chest.

Iowa law, unlike Nebraska's, does not require a grand jury investigation of deaths involving police.

Yes, sometimes when you're a cop, things just happen to go a certain way. Thank God for saving the lives of these fine, experienced, dedicated police officers, and now Council Bluffs will be a safer place for the regular citizenry, after the righteously justified elimination of another lump of human garbage.

God Bless,
Dan'L