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Campers were evacuated after an Iowa state park campground was the scene of a triple homicide Friday morning.
Maquoketa Caves State Park reported Friday morning that a shooting had taken place on park property. The park, as well as nearby campgrounds, quickly issued evacuation notices and began issuing updates to visitors.
Authorities found the bodies of three victims, as well as that of a suspect, at the crime scene.
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Anthony Orlando Sherwin is shown in this photo provided by the Iowa Department of Public Safety. Three people were killed in a shooting at the Maquoketa Caves State Park campground in eastern Iowa on Friday, July 2, 2022, and the suspected gunman has also died, police said. Mike Krapfl, special agent in charge of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said officers searching the campsite found the body of a Nebraska man who had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Authorities identified him as 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin. (Iowa Department of Public Safety via AP)
“At approximately 6:23 this morning, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and DCI were notified of a triple homicide at the Maquoketa Caves State Park campground. Officers located three dead bodies” , the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said in a statement. “Officers later discovered a camper was missing,” the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation wrote in a news release.
Authorities found the body of 23-year-old Anthony Orlando Sherwin at the scene. Sherwin died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“After searching the area, officers found the dead body of Anthony Orlando Sherwin, 23, west of the park. Sherwin appears to have suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound and is out of danger for the public,” authorities said in the statement.
The park is an active crime scene and will be closed until authorities are finished
Emergency personnel block an entrance to Maquoketa Caves State Park as police investigate a shooting that left several people dead Friday, July 22, 2022, in Maquoketa. Iowa. (Nikos Frazier/Quad City Times via AP)
“This morning there was an emergency situation at Maquoketa Caves,” Camp Shalom, a nearby Christian camp and retreat center, wrote on Facebook. “We evacuated the camp as soon as we heard about it. All campers and staff are safe and accounted for in town at Little Bear Park, where we will have closing worship and pickup at our regular time of 11 a.m. morning”.
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Deadly shootings continue to make headlines as police departments struggle to contain and respond to shootings across the country.
An entrance to Maquoketa Caves State Park is blocked as police investigate a fatal shooting Friday, July 22, 2022, in Maquoketa, Iowa. (Nikos Frazier/Quad City Times via AP)
A Rochester, New York, police officer died just hours earlier after being shot by a suspect while on duty in the northeast part of the city. Police Chief Dave Smith identified the fallen officer as Anthony Mazurkiewicz, a 29-year veteran of the force and husband and father.
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Officer Sino Seng, on the force for eight years, was shot in the lower body, Smith said Friday morning. Smith called the fatal shooting a “cowardly ambush” and said Mazurkiewicz and Seng “were victims of the same violence in our community that we are trying to combat.”
Mazurkiewicz was shot at least once in the upper body and died after being taken to a local hospital, Smith said. Seng was shot at least once in the lower body and has been released from hospital to recover at home with his wife and children.
Timothy Nerozzi is a writer for Fox News Digital. You can follow him on Twitter @timothynerozzi and email him at timothy.nerozzi@fox.com