Cops: Ex-Player Killed HS Football Coach

24-Year-Old Allegdly Shot Prominent Iowa Coach In School's Weight Room, 4 Days After Incident With Baseball Bat

(CBS/AP)  Last updated 4:19 p.m. EDT

A gunman shot and killed a prominent Iowa high school football coach in the school's weight room early Wednesday.

Police say Mark Becker, a 24-year-old former player, shot Aplington-Parkersburg High School football coach Ed Thomas several times at about 8 a.m. Wednesday in the school's weight room. Authorities say students were in the room when Thomas was shot, but no one else was injured.

Police say Becker was arrested shortly after the shooting. He is charged with first-degree murder and is being held in Butler County jail.

Thomas, the 2005 NFL high school football coach of the year, was airlifted to a Waterloo hospital and died, his family said in a statement.

According to police, Becker was supposed to be taken to taken to a hospital psychiatric ward after taking a baseball bat to a Cedar Rapids home Saturday night and leading police on a car chase.

Cedar Falls Police Chief Jeff Olson says Becker was released at some point but that his department wasn't notified.

It wasn't immediately clear if sheriff's deputies took Becker to the hospital as they were instructed to. The Sheriff's Office declined to comment on the matter. Becker was charged Monday with eluding police pursuit.

The school district's superintendent and a guidance counselor were meeting with students who were in the weight room at the time of the shooting.

"No kids were hurt, we're thankful for that," Superintendent Jon Thompson told KOEL radio. "They did witness this and so we have counselors at the site to talk with the kids."

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.

Team officials said DeVries was not immediately available for comment.

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.

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.

[heliocracy]

Any of you gun nuts want to claim that this crime would still have happened if we had some measure of gun control? You're all fond of saying that "only criminals will have guns," but you fail to notice that having a gun makes it simple for anyone to become a criminal in any given fit of rage.

Besides, the cops will have guns too.

Far, far more innocent people are killed by unfettered access to guns than are criminals killed by people using them to protect themselves. It's not even close. How many things are we allowed to do that cause undue harm 95% of the time, so that we can have the benefit of the 5% of the time that harm is prevented?

[fred-mertz]

ANOTHER "law abiding gun owner" gone bad! Where's gunownerdan to tell us how we'll all be so much "safer" if we all carry loaded guns everywhere we go? Say dan, can you "defend yourself" with your gun if someone comes into the room with a loaded gun aimed at your head and he pulls the trigger while you are doing a bench press? Can ya, huh?

[DoubleHappiness88]

SPORTS BUILD CHARACTER and Mark Becker is an example of the sort of character sports build.

[skeetchamp]

What was this person so angry about? Shooting someone point-blank in the head isn't easy to do. There must have been something of a very personal nature between them that sparked this killing. I just wonder what it was. Could there have possibly been sexual abuse involved?

[rushlimpdrug]

Steroids?

[realitychec6]

... everyone is guessing at motive here ... story does not give one, and we won't know until investigators find out and publish the information. Those who participate in sports activities can benefit greatly and most do. The few people who display negative behavior do not mar the overall positives of competitive sports. Not only are these activities educational, they provide healthy, character-building, fun-filled, and entertaining interactions for all who have the right attitude (which are the majority).

[ubrew12]

All we know is that when the young man needed a gun, he found one, probably easier than he could find a cigarette.

[Thalia-9]

by mrkjessup78 June 24, 2009 1:01 PM PDT
was the former player the coaches lover?

As it doesn't state any previous disputes between them aside form a baseball bat incident, surely there had to be some motive behind this kids anger...not commending his actions at all, nor am I saying he was molested, just pointing out it's obviously anger directed specifically at the coach for whatever reason, as shooting him several times while leaving the kids in the locker room safe from harm indicates - the kid's 24 yrs old, it's not like he'd be pi$$ed about not starting in the homecoming game 6 yrs prior - unless he's a looney - who knows.


by VEGAS-GANGSTERS June 24, 2009 11:52 AM PDT
Let me guess... the shooter was afraid Obama would take his precious guns away........

??? That comment makes utterly no sense.

[fred-mertz]

"Let me guess... the shooter was afraid Obama would take his precious guns away..."

"??? That comment makes utterly no sense."

Unfortunately, it makes A LOT of sense. Thanks to the NRA and a bunch of right-wing nutcases on FOX noise, a significant number of wackos in this country are so afraid that "Obama is going to take away our guns!" that they are hoarding guns and ammo and they are holed up in their little enclaves waiting for someone to show up and try to take their guns away so they can shoot them dead to express their "constitutional rights".

[sean58z]

Texas should examine their procedure for a psychiatric commitment. A mental patient with a baseball bat should be injected with thorazine and haldol. Hostile and delusional patients could be treated with ECT or a modified frontal lobotomy to repair brain damage.

[realitychec6]

... didn't happen in Texas.... it was Iowa.

[VEGAS-GANGSTERS]

Let me guess... the shooter was afraid Obama would take his precious guns away........

[credibility2]

There is far too much emphasis on all competitive sports, regardless of it being on the amateur or professional level. The emphasis is almost to the point of being a psychosis and abnormal obsession.

[winchester70]

Amen, brother.

[dwilson59]

You bring up a very good point. A sport teaches people to work for a goal and in turn it will give the drive to do what ever you want to do later in life. For my self I walked on for 4 years and had to work extra just to make the traveling team. Everyone in my family asked why do it. Later in life I look at things different, there is nothing I can?t do.

[sean58z]

High school football is a very competitive sport. Coaches have been shot, beaten seriously, and their property destroyed by the students or rivals. Schools need structure and technology for security. Too many students (and former students) wasted their lives on alcohol and street narcotics. Psychosis is never a reason for murder.

[dartplayer501]

Yes, it's competitive, way, way too competitive. Sports are supposed to be enjoyed, not be a proving ground for future marines. I understand that team sports teach discipline, teamwork, respect etc. but these are attributes that should be taught in the classroom, not by playing games.

[fred-mertz]

"Psychosis is never a reason for murder."

Actually, it's the ONLY reason. Anyone who resorts to murder IS psychotic. Sane people can work out their problems without murdering anybody.