Crime & Safety
UPDATE: West Des Moines Police Say Death in Valley Junction Was Accident
Officers were called early Monday morning to a shooting at a home in the Valley Junction neighborhood. One person died; officers say the wound appears to be an accident.
West Des Moines police said a Norwalk man died after he accidentally shot himself in the head at a house on Third Street in the Valley Junction neighborhood early Monday morning.
The call on a possible shooting came in at about 1:30 a.m.
Officer Aaron Swenson said police found a 24-year-old man in the house alive, but suffering from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, from which he later died.
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Police Spokesman Lt. Jim Barrett said Monday afternoon that the preliminary investigation indicates Loren George Peters, 24, of Norwalk died of a self-inflicted and accidental gunshot wound to the head.
Peters was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Polk County Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct an autopsy to determine the official cause and manner of death.
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