Andrew Tanaka Charged With Four Counts of Attempted Murder on I-35

A 27-year-old West Des Moines man told law enforcement "I had to kill people today" after officers arrested him on the shoulder of Interstate 35 in Warren County, Iowa, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit filed Tuesday in Warren County District Court.

Andrew Darrick Tanaka faces four counts of attempted murder in the Oct. 5 shootings along I-35, according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety. Court records also list a charge of intimidation with a dangerous weapon. One woman was shot in the left shoulder while driving. Several other vehicles were struck by gunfire.

Tanaka was booked into the Warren County Jail and is being held on a $1 million cash bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 16.

The 911 calls started at 3:31 p.m.

Dispatchers began taking multiple calls around 3:31 p.m. Monday reporting gunfire along the northbound lanes of I-35, according to the affidavit. Callers reported a man discharging a firearm.

Deputies from the Warren County Sheriff's Office, officers from the West Des Moines Police Department and Iowa State Patrol troopers responded to the reports near mile marker 56. The scene sits near Bevington, a small town south of Des Moines, on one of the busiest north-south corridors in the state.

When officers got there, they found a woman with a gunshot wound and several vehicles that appeared to have been struck by bullets.

A routine pass, then shots through a driver's window

Tanaka was driving a black Chevrolet Equinox when a woman in a black BMW passed him on the interstate, the affidavit states. The BMW then passed a Subaru Outback.

Investigators allege Tanaka caught up to the Subaru and fired at least two rounds through the driver's side window, hitting the woman behind the wheel in her left shoulder.

He then allegedly caught up to the BMW and fired another round through its driver's side window.

Two people stopped to help. He allegedly shot at them.

Tanaka kept driving north and rear-ended a gray Nissan Altima carrying two people, the affidavit says.

The two occupants of the Altima got out of their car to check on him after the crash. Tanaka allegedly stepped out of his Equinox with a handgun and fired at least one round into the Altima's windshield.

The collision left his vehicle disabled. That is where the driving stopped.

Officers found him standing on the shoulder, holding a gun

Police located Tanaka at the 62-mile marker, six miles up the road from where the first shots-fired calls came in, after his vehicle struck another car and became disabled, according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety.

He was standing on the shoulder of the interstate armed with a handgun when officers arrived. He was taken into custody without further incident.

The sentence in the affidavit

After he was taken into custody, Tanaka allegedly told law enforcement, "I had to kill people today," according to the criminal complaint and affidavit filed Tuesday in Warren County District Court.

That line is the only thing resembling an explanation that has surfaced in the court filings described so far. Investigators have not publicly offered a motive, and nothing in the filings ties the shootings to the drivers he allegedly fired on beyond the fact that one of them passed him.

Nothing made public suggests he knew any of them: a pass on the highway, a car ahead, and two motorists who stopped at a crash scene.

The woman who was shot is expected to be OK

Medical aid was given to the wounded driver at the scene. She was taken to a hospital with injuries that authorities said did not appear to be life-threatening.

KCRG reported she is expected to be okay. She was hit in the left shoulder by gunfire that came through her driver's side window while she was driving at highway speed.

No one else was reported wounded. The driver of the BMW and the two people in the Altima were not reported injured by gunfire, even though rounds went through a side window and a windshield.

A 16-mile stretch of I-35 closed for hours

Investigators shut down a 16-mile stretch of the highway to process the scene, KCCI reported.

The interstate stayed closed for several hours Monday while crews worked. The shooting scene was not confined to one spot. It stretched from the area of mile marker 56, where the first calls came in, to mile marker 62, where Tanaka was arrested.

That meant bullet casings, damaged vehicles and witness statements spread across miles of open road, in the middle of the afternoon drive, on a route that carries traffic between Des Moines and the Missouri line.

Four counts, four people, three cars

Tanaka was booked into the Warren County Jail on four counts of attempted murder, according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety.

The affidavit describes gunfire aimed at four people in three vehicles: the woman driving the Subaru Outback, the woman driving the black BMW, and the two occupants of the gray Nissan Altima who had stopped after the rear-end crash.

Court documents show he is being held on a $1 million cash-only bond. His next court appearance is set for Oct. 16.

Three agencies responded, two are investigating

The response pulled in county deputies, city police and state troopers at once. Warren County Sheriff's deputies, West Des Moines police officers and Iowa State Patrol troopers all went to the reports of gunfire near mile marker 56.

The Warren County Sheriff's Office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation are continuing to investigate the shootings. The Iowa Department of Public Safety released the initial information on the charges.

The shootings happened in Warren County, which is where the case was filed.

What the charges mean

Tanaka has been arrested and charged. He has not been tried or convicted of anything. The account of what happened on I-35 comes from a sworn affidavit and criminal complaint filed by investigators, which is the government's version of events at the earliest stage of a criminal case.

Attempted murder charges require prosecutors to prove intent, not just that shots were fired. The statement attributed to Tanaka after his arrest is the kind of evidence that tends to matter in that fight, and it is already in the court record.

He remains in custody at the Warren County Jail. Four counts. A $1 million cash bond. A court date on Oct. 16.

The stretch of road where it happened

Mile marker 56 on I-35 runs through rural Warren County, past farm ground and exits for towns most drivers blow by at 70 mph. Bevington is one of them.

Northbound traffic there is heading into the Des Moines metro. The people named in the affidavit were doing exactly that: a woman in a Subaru Outback, a woman in a BMW, two people in a Nissan Altima.

Officers arrived to find one of them wounded in her car and bullet damage on multiple vehicles. Six miles up the road, a man stood on the shoulder next to a wrecked Equinox with a handgun in his hand, and was taken into custody without further incident.