Officers responded to 1007 S. 20th St. around 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday for a report of a person being shot. Shortly after, the woman was taken by ambulance to UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center with life-threatening gunshot injuries.

Officers and investigators with the Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division interviewed “numerous witnesses in the area,” according to a press release from Capt. Dennis Quinn. He said that based on information gathered, the shooting appears to have been a targeted and isolated incident and not a random act of violence. No information about a possible suspect was released as of press time.

Neighbor Ira Shivers said he heard four to five gunshots and when he looked outside, he saw a white Chevrolet Impala backing out of the driveway at 1007 S. 20th St. and a woman running out of the house at the car. He said he heard more gunfire and he saw the woman continuing to run down the driveway after the car before the woman stopped in the driveway and yelled that she had been shot.

Shivers said he then went outside and the woman started walking toward him with blood coming from her chest. He said he told her to stay where she was and he would call 911. He said some neighbors from down the street ran over to render aid to the victim until paramedics could arrive.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Fort Dodge Police Department Officer Matt Weir interviews witnesses to a shooting at 1007 S. 20th St. on Tuesday afternoon. One female victim was taken to the hospital with an apparent gunshot wound.

Shivers said he’d been having issues with the neighbors at 1007 S. 20th St. for several weeks with domestic disturbances, loud parties and littering. Another neighbor said they had to report a domestic disturbance at that address just two weekends ago.

“This is a good neighborhood,” Shivers said. “It’s just that house … Once the original tenants left, it stayed empty for a year and a half, and then all of a sudden these people pulled in there and it’s been hell ever since.”

The house is owned by Hunter Rentals LLC, according to Webster County Assessor’s Office data.

Shivers said he doesn’t believe the gunshot victim lived at the residence, but had been staying there recently.

At least two nearby houses appear to have been hit by stray bullets.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Tents mark the spots of several shell casings following a shooting in the 1000 block of South 20th Street on Tuesday afternoon.

It’s a miracle there weren’t any other injuries reported, Shivers said.

“There’s always kids on this block,” he said. “There’s so many kids that live in this neighborhood.”

The shooting happened about a block east of Butler Elementary School.

The FDPD is continuing to investigate the incident with assistance from the Webster County Sheriff’s Office, Webster County Attorney’s Office and Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

The Fort Dodge Fire Department assisted at the scene.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
More than a dozen shell casings were collected at the scene of a shooting in the 1000 block of South 20th Street on Tuesday afternoon.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Fort Dodge Police Department Evidence Technician Brandi Webb marks a bullet hole in the siding of a house that was hit by a stray bullet in the 1000 block of South 20th Street on Tuesday afternoon.