PARKERSBURG, Iowa — A 24-year-old former high school football player walked into the school’s weight room this morning and fatally shot his former coach, before sheriff’s deputies arrested him at a nearby home a short time later, authorities said.
Mark Becker shot Aplington-Parkersburg High School football coach Ed Thomas several times with a handgun after walking into the room at about 8 a.m., authorities said. Thomas was rushed to nearby Waterloo hospital, where he died.
Several students were in the room at the time of the shooting, but none were injured, said Kevin Winker, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. School was not in sessitoday.
“The people that were present were not threatened in any way,” Winker said.
Becker is charged with first-degree murder and was being held in Butler County jail.
Winker said Becker was arrested without incident at a home in rural Parkersburg shortly after authorities received a 911 call about the shooting.
He said he couldn’t discuss what Becker’s motive for the slaying might have been, or what Becker might have been up to in the days leading up to the shooting.
“Motive is one of those things we’re looking into,” Winker said.
Winker said Becker used a handgun in the shooting. He did not elaborate.
He said investigators plan on interviewing students who were in the weight room and to look into Becker’s past.
“Mr. Becker’s entire past is being looked at,” Winker said.
The school is in Parkersburg, about 80 miles northeast of Des Moines.
Thomas compiled a career record of 292-84 in 37 seasons as a head coach, 34 of them at Aplington-Parkersburg, and was one of the most well-known high school football coaches in Iowa. He was honored as the NFL High School Coach of the Year in 2005, and four of his former players are in the NFL: Green Bay’s Aaron Kampman, Jacksonville’s Brad Meester, Detroit’s Jared DeVries and Denver’s Casey Wiegmann.
DeVries, a defensive end with the Lions, walked off the practice field in Allen Park, Mich. toward the end of its morning practice, apparently shaken.
Thomas made national headlines last year when he insisted that the high school’s football field, named in his honor, be rebuilt as a way to help restore community pride in Parkersburg after it was hit by a powerful tornado in May 2008 that killed six people and destroyed the high school.
“A lot of people know Coach Thomas for his success as a football coach, but a lot of people here locally know him as a person, as a dad and grandfather, and that’s where our thoughts are right now, with Coach Thomas,” said Superintendent Thompson.
Gov. Chet Culver, who was once a high school teacher and coach in Des Moines, said he was stunned by the shooting.
“As a former high school football coach, I’ve always had great admiration and respect for Coach Thomas,” Culver said in a statement. “The state and national coaching fraternity has suffered a devastating loss. As we mourn the passing of Coach Thomas, it is my hope we can all continue to learn from his example.”
Paul Rhoads, Iowa State’s new football coach, said in a statement that Thomas was one of the first people to call him when he accepted the Cyclones job last December. Rhoads said Thomas was an Iowa coaching legend and “the best of people.”
“His leadership set an example for us and his legacy will live on in the thousands of people he has touched in and out of the classroom and on and off the field,” Rhoads said.
Toby Lorenzen, head coach at Central Lyon High School in Rock Rapids in northwest Iowa, said the killing was a shock to people in high school football programs throughout Iowa.
“He was one of the most down to earth, well respected coaches around.”
Richard Wulkow, executive director of the Iowa High School Athletic Association, said in a statement that Thomas embodied what a coach should be.
“He will be forever remembered not so much for his many wins on the field, but for the exemplary manner in which he coached kids and led the Aplington-Parkersburg community and school. This was especially true last spring and summer as they rebuilt from a devastating tornado.”
In 2005, a Texas high school football coach was shot by an angry parent who walked into the school fieldhouse and fired a single bullet into Gary Joe Kinne’s stomach. The gunman’s son played on the Canton High School football team with Kinne’s son, who was the star quarterback.
Kinne survived. The shooter, Jeff Doyal Robertson, was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
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