Iowa Police Killings: A New Aurora

Aurora & 70th crime scene.

Two Des Moines/Urbandale, Iowa, metro-area police officers were shot and killed in apparent "ambush style" attacks early Wednesday, November 2, 2016.

At about 1:06 a.m., police from Urbandale and Des Moines departments responded to a report of gunfire at the intersection of 70th Street and Aurora Avenue.

Merle Hay & Sheridan crime scene.

At about 1:26 a.m., a Des Moines police officer was shot near the intersection of Merle Hay Road and Sheridan Avenue while responding to the scene where the Urbandale officer was shot. The Des Moines officer was transported to Iowa Methodist Medical Center, where he died.

Both officers were gunned down in their patrol cars.

As of 7:30 a.m., police identified Scott Michael Greene as a suspect in the fatal shootings. Police said he should be considered armed and dangerous. He is 46, 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighing about 180 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes. He was last known to be driving a blue 2011 Ford F-150 with Iowa license plate 780 YFR. The truck has a silver-colored topper with a ladder rack, police said.

A man named Scott Greene, who matches the description of the suspect, recorded himself protesting against police, as he was being kicked out of a football game in Urbandale, Iowa, on October 14, 2016. He reportedly had been holding American and Confederate flags in front of African-Americans, and had formerly been in trouble for calling a neighbor the "n-word."

He was captured Wednesday morning. Near the G-Trail in Redfield, Iowa. That's correct. Aurora. Redfield. (http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2016/11/02/scott-michael-greene-convicted-combative-2014-encounters/93157528/)

Aurora (dawn) is a familiar moniker in the twilight language name game, especially since the Aurora, Colorado (red dawn) shootings of 2012. Now we have the combination of Aurora + Red(field) again.

Jennifer Lawrence plays Aurora Lane in Passengers.

Sheridan means "wild" or "wild man" to some. The more standard origin states it is from an Irish surname which was derived from Ó Sirideáin meaning "descendant of Sirideán". The name Sirideán means "searcher" in Gaelic.

Merle means "blackbird" (via French, from Latin merula).

Des Moines traces back to the French, being a city "of the monks."

The way to the meaning of the word Iowa is through the Ioway. Ioway is the French transcription of Ayuway, which is what the Illini and Meskwaki called the tribe. The roots of this word only get more twisted. Ayuway is actually an alteration of what the Dakota called the tribe: Ayuxba (AH-you-khbah), which is believed to mean “sleepy ones.” Ayuxba to Iowa: the “sleepy ones.”
The Ioway tribe do not refer to themselves as the Ioway, but Baxoje (BAH-kho-jay), a name believed to come from what the Otoe called the tribe. The Otoe and Ioway sometimes camped with one another. Once, the Ioway camp was covered in ashy snow. The Otoe called the group baxoje, “grey snow” or “ashy snow-heads.” Source.

Iowa is part of the disputed route of the oil pipeline, the subject of a First Peoples protest, which is mostly not in the news.

Stand with Standing Rock has become the protest call.