DES MOINES, Iowa — Authorities charged a second teen with murder Friday in the shooting deaths of two students at a Des Moines educational program.
Bravon Michael Tukes, 19, of Des Moines, faces two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of criminal gang involvement.
The charges coincide with those filed earlier in the week against 18-year-old Preston Walls, who is accused of fatally shooting two teenage students at the Starts Right Here education program on Monday and wounding the founder of the program.
Police said evidence shows that Tukes communicated with Walls before and immediately after the shooting and drove the vehicle in which Walls allegedly got away. Tukes and Walls are members of the same gang and committed the shootings «in connection with that gang membership,» police said in a news release.
Police said they recovered four firearms during their investigation.
Online court records did not indicate whether Tukes already had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
The shooting left 18-year-old Gionni Dameron and 16-year-old Rashad Carr dead. Will Keeps, a former Chicago gang member who moved to Des Moines and later founded the program to help at-risk youth, was critically injured and remains in a hospital.
Police have said the four teens were gang members, but family and friends of Dameron and Carr dispute this, saying they were not involved in gangs and they were close friends who were devoted to their families.
Police say the shooting was premeditated and that Walls, who was on supervised release on a weapons charge last year, cut an ankle monitor 16 minutes earlier. Court documents say she had a concealed semi-automatic pistol with a high-capacity extended magazine when she entered a Starts Right Here common area and opened fire.
School was canceled this week for the education program, which works with Des Moines Public Schools to help students who have not been successful in traditional schools. Keeps has forged deep ties with community leaders, and the city’s police chief sits on the program’s board.
Matt Smith, the interim school superintendent, described Keeps as “incredible. Incredibly passionate.»