lake Alcott Myers, a 34-year-old Black man, was fatally shot on the evening of March 3, 2022, in a residential area of Des Moines, Iowa. At approximately 8:50 p.m., police officers and emergency personnel were dispatched to the 900 block of Walker Street after receiving reports of gunfire. The neighborhood is located east of downtown and only a short distance from the Iowa State Capitol.
When officers arrived, they found Myers suffering from a serious gunshot wound.
Des Moines Fire Department medics provided emergency treatment and transported him to Iowa Methodist Medical Center, but he later died from his injuries. Police classified the shooting as a homicide, making his death the third homicide investigated in Des Moines during 2022.
Detectives began interviewing witnesses, examining physical evidence and following leads connected to the shooting. Authorities did not immediately identify a suspected gunman or disclose what may have led to the violence. Investigators later announced that they were searching for Brian Houston Jr., who was believed to possess important information about the killing. Police obtained a material-witness warrant for Houston, emphasizing that the warrant did not itself accuse him of murdering Myers.
Houston was eventually taken into custody in May 2022 after police identified him as the suspect in a separate shooting. In that incident, a man was seriously wounded on May 16 near East 14th Street and East University Avenue. Houston was arrested without incident and charged with attempted murder and possession of a firearm as a felon in connection with that later shooting.
Although Houston had been sought as a material witness in the investigation into Myers's death, publicly available reporting does not show that he was charged with killing Myers. No other person has been publicly identified as the shooter, and no murder trial or conviction connected to Myers's death has been announced. The circumstances surrounding the confrontation, including the motive and the identity of the person who fired the fatal shot, therefore remain unresolved in public accounts.
