© 2024 Iowa Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Reynolds and Branstad Attend Officer Funeral, Await Review of Fatal Shooting

Joyce Russell/IPR
Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds

Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds says it’s too early to recommend any change in state policy, after last week’s fatal shooting of Pottawattamie County deputy Mark Burbridge, whose funeral was held in Council Bluffs today.

Deputy Burbridge was killed in the line of duty when an inmate he was escorting back to jail with another deputy took one their firearms and shot them both.    

Reynolds says the Branstad administration will stay in touch with the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Department officials as they review the incident.

Officers receive very good training at the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy. -Gov. Branstad

“We’ll wait until the department does a full review of that and then we’ll see what needs to take place from there,”   Reynolds said.

Deputy Pat Morgan survived the shooting. 

“Officers receive very good training at the Iowa law Enforcement Academy,” Gov. Branstad said at his weekly news conference.  “The officers were graduates of the Law Enforcement Academy, but after you have a tragic incident like this I think it's important to look at it and analyze what went wrong.”

The inmate the officers were escorting, 24-year-old Wesley Correa-Carmenaty, escaped custody and was later arrested in Omaha.    

Authorities planned to wait until after the officer’s funeral to return the inmate to Iowa to face murder and attempted murder charges.