In the early hours of Sunday, April 28, 2024, the Council Bluffs Police Department responded to a call about a man down in the 2100 block of S. 29th Street. Upon their arrival at approximately 12:18 a.m., they discovered the body of 36-year-old Deonte Ivory, a Black/African American male from Omaha, deceased on the roadway. The initial discovery was just the beginning of a grim day for the city.
Later that morning, around 7:02 a.m., a citizen walking their dog found another deceased man less than a mile away, near the entrance of the Western Trails Historic Center in the 3200 block of S. 24th Street. This second victim was identified as 25-year-old Michael Anderson, also of Omaha.
Investigators immediately began probing the circumstances surrounding both deaths, working to determine if the two incidents were related. Autopsies later confirmed that both Deonte Ivory and Michael Anderson had died from gunshot wounds. The investigation quickly gained momentum as detectives from the Council Bluffs Police Department identified a suspect vehicle, which was later found abandoned and riddled with bullets in rural Mills County. A partially burned shirt was discovered hanging out of the car's gas tank. The investigation revealed that the two victims and the suspect were known associates.
Through a combination of cell phone records, surveillance footage, witness statements, and social media analysis, authorities identified 30-year-old Dequanta R. Zachary of Council Bluffs as the primary suspect. On April 29, just a day after the bodies were found, detectives located Zachary in Blair, Nebraska. With the help of the Blair Police Department and the Washington County Sheriff's Office, he was taken into custody, initially on an outstanding warrant for first-degree theft.
Following the arrest, the Pottawattamie County Attorney's Office filed more severe charges against Zachary: two counts of first-degree murder and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon. The evidence against him was substantial, including a DNA test that found one of the victim's blood on his clothing. In October 2024, a jury took only about an hour to convict Dequanta Zachary on all charges. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
