Reynolds in Charles City comments on shootings: ‘It’s happening too often’

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds talked briefly Friday in Charles City about last week’s deadly shooting at Cornerstone Church in Ames.

“It’s happening too often,” Reynolds said.

“From what I understand, it was a targeted domestic attack,” Reynolds said. “The shooter — the individual went there for that purpose.”

Reynolds said she had been told that investigators believed that “mental illness was involved.”

“It’s just tragic, and our prayers go out to the families that were impacted,” Reynolds said. “It’s just — it’s happening too often.”

Reynolds made the comments during a quick stop Friday afternoon at Prologue Books and Wine in downtown Charles City. The stop was a part of a last-minute swing through Floyd County to recognize the new business, which has received statewide accolades.

She was visiting as a part of her 99-county tour, in which she tries to visit all 99 Iowa counties at least once every year. She talked with owner Darci Tracey and some Prologue customers and fielded a few questions from the media.

On Thursday evening, Johnathan Lee Whitlatch, 33, of Boone, pulled up in a pickup truck to 22-year-old Eden Montang, 21-year-old Vivian Flores and another woman just before 7 p.m. outside Cornerstone Church on the outskirts of Ames and began shooting with a 9 mm handgun, investigators have said.

Montang and Flores were killed, Story County Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald said, and Whitlatch shot himself. The women were friends and students at Iowa State University who were walking together to the church for a weekly service that is popular with university and high school students, the sheriff said.

Fitzgerald said a search of Whitlatch’s truck following the shooting turned up ammunition and a receipt showing he bought the ammunition an hour before the shooting. A search warrant executed at Whitlatch’s home also turned up an AR-15-style rifle, which was not used in the shooting.

Whitlatch and Montang had recently broken up, Fitzgerald said, and investigators believe Whitlach’s intent was to kill her.

“He was there for a specific purpose, which he accomplished,” the sheriff said.

Whitlatch faced a court hearing this week on a charge of harassing Montag, investigators said Friday.

About 80 other students were inside the megachurch at the time of the shooting, Fitzgerald said. The church is near Interstate 35, about 30 miles north of Des Moines.

The shooting in Ames follows several mass shootings in the U.S. in recent weeks that have roiled the nation, including a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 students and two teachers, a shooting in Tulsa, Oklahoma at a medical office that killed four people and a shooting at a Buffalo, New York supermarket that killed 10 people.

Court records show that Whitlatch was arrested in November on a charge of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse and had been set to go to trial next month. Police said security camera footage shows him twice forcing his hand down a woman’s pants at a Cedar Falls bar.

Reynolds’ initial tweet Thursday night about the incident said, “Tonight’s act of senseless violence took the lives of two innocent victims at their place of worship. Kevin and I grieve for the families who have suffered an unfathomable loss.”

In another tweet, she said, “And while the investigation continues and we learn more, we ask that Iowans pray for the victims and their families, the members of Cornerstone Church, and the entire Ames community.”

— The Associated Press contributed to this report