Franklin Pastorino, a University of Iowa third-year student, had never heard a gun go off before. When shots were fired on the Pedestrian Mall on the April 19 shooting, Pastorino thought the loud sound was fireworks.

It wasn’t until he heard people screaming that he realized something was horribly wrong.

Five people were injured in a shooting following a fight in the early morning of April 19, including three UI students, according to a release from the UI Office of the President. 

During the fight, suspect 17-year-old Damarian Marshawn Jones, of Cedar Rapids, obtained a firearm from another individual and fired six shots, including shots to the five victims’ chest cavity, arm, leg, stomach, and head, according to Dustin Liston, chief of police for the Iowa City Police Department.

Damarian was taken into custody near Atlanta, Georgia, on May 11, according to a news release from the City of Iowa City. He is currently in custody in the Clayton County Jail in Georgia and will be extradited to Iowa pending a hearing in Georgia, according to the news release.

He faces multiple charges, including five counts of attempted murder.

The shooting comes at a time when Iowa City reached a low in gun violence, according to a report from the Iowa City Police Department. Local leaders and anti-gun violence advocates are working toward making systemic changes to address the shooting and support anyone impacted.

Pastorino is working on overcoming the fear he now associates with Iowa City’s Ped Mall. He’s worked up to the point where he can walk in the area during the day, but isn’t able to set foot on the Ped Mall at night.

“It is difficult to really see the Ped Mall in the same light as you usually do,” he said.

Pastorino has also experienced nightmares, ones so intense he finds it difficult to tell if they actually happened or not.

 “It’s just really haunting to think that someone would want to do that, or would feel comfortable doing that to anyone, regardless of what will come of the fight,” he said.

Iowa City is not a particularly violent or dangerous place, Pastorino said, and the shooting feels like an isolated, rare event.

“Just even the fact that it happened here is kind of scary in and of itself,” he said.

The most recent data from the Iowa City Police Department shows that documented shootings decreased by more than 50 percent between 2023 and 2024.

Shots fired numbers have decreased in Johnson County over time, said Kristen Silver, Johnson County Public Safety and Justice public information officer. Silver said the April 19 shooting is not a common occurrence for Iowa City.

“Our goal is to always be zero,” Silver said. “But our shots fired have gone down significantly over the years.”

The last shooting on the Ped Mall was nearly a decade ago, which led to the death of 22-year-old Kaleek Asham Douglas Jones.

Documented shootings swooped from 57 in 2020 to 7 in 2024, according to ICPD’s report. Rounds fired declined from 304 to 35 in the same timeframe. 

This downward trend is not seen in the state or the nation. In Iowa, the rate of gun deaths has increased 53 percent from 2015 to 2024, according to data from Everytown for Gun Safety, which identifies as the largest gun violence prevention organization in the U.S.

Nationally, roughly 44,000 people died of gun- related injuries in the U.S. in 2024, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This number fell for the third year, but was still among the highest annual totals on record.

As the aftermath of the shooting continues to shake the Iowa City community, local leaders and advocates say they aim to listen to community members to better understand how to support them.

Local leaders look to community for cues

At an April 23 Johnson County Board of Supervisor formal meeting, Supervisor V Fixmer-Oraiz spoke on possible next steps to address gun violence.

 They said they added this to the meeting’s agenda to start a conversation and act beyond “thoughts and prayers.” Fixmer-Oraiz recommended the creation of a Community Gun Safety Task Force focused on youth, as suggested by Iowa City anti-gun violence advocate Temple Hiatt. 

Fixmer-Oraiz said the recommendation was simply to put forward ideas and identify gaps in services the county provides.

“We clearly have some pretty deep-seated issues in our community,” they said. “And so how are we going to address that?”

Fixmer-Oraiz said there isn’t yet a clear sense of what will come to fruition, and they are working to meet with and listen to community members to determine how to move forward.

 “Johnson County is a place that is welcoming, and I want people to feel safer here,” they said. “And so I am committed, and I know my colleagues are committed, to doing everything that we can to continue to make that a reality. It is going to be a long road, and there are many barriers, but I will continue to fight for and care for our community in every possible way, and that’s through policy and practice and just showing up for each other.”

In response to the April 19 shooting, the Iowa City Police Department and University of Iowa Police Department partnered to increase downtown weekend patrols. 

Four UIPD officers were added to weekend patrols, according to Lee Hermiston, public information officer for ICPD.

The weekend following the shooting, patrols were joined by members of the Johnson County Community Violence Prevention program.

Jess Lang, Johnson County Community Violence Prevention coordinator, was on the Ped Mall the weekend after the shooting with her team, handing out glow sticks and having conversations with passersby.

The program also brought in therapy dogs and mental health professionals for UI students to engage with the week following the shooting.

Lang said the program is focused on listening — talking with students and community members, attending local government meetings — as they assess how to move forward in a way that best supports the community.

The program’s work is mostly preventative and intervention, Lang said, and rather than being reactive, it is proactive.

“Yet, obviously, when an incident like this happens, we step up wherever it’s needed,” Lang said. “CVI has really come to light with this incident, and so we’re going wherever we’re needed and being wherever we’re needed.”

Gun violence has a ripple effect on communities, Lang said, from trauma for those who experience it to socioeconomic implications on businesses in areas that have reported gun violence. 

“People think that neighborhoods are unsafe, they won’t shop there, they don’t want their kids to go to school in those neighborhoods,” Lang said. “There’s so many other big things that gun violence creates that we’re trying to prevent from happening besides loss of life. It’s a bigger picture.”

Lang said the program will continue to establish relationships and connect people in the community to resources and services that will aid them in not taking part in violent activity. The program will continue to collaborate with community partners to work toward keeping the community safe.

The Ped Mall shooting shocked a lot of people, Lang said, because many people thought something so violent would never happen in Iowa City.

“My reality is, this is my worst nightmare. This is what I’ve never wanted to happen in the community, and so it puts the ante for us,” Lang said. “It’s something I’ve taken seriously every day since I started this job, and I’m going to continue doing what I do with all of our community partners and law enforcement.” 

Advocates push for reform

Iowa has very few gun violence prevention laws remaining after 2021, when the state legislature voted to eliminate permit-to-purchase and concealed carry permitting requirements.

Gun laws were further relaxed by the state legislature in the 2025 legislative session. The legal age to own and carry a handgun in Iowa was lowered from 21 to 18 years old, following a law that went into effect on July 1. The law also allows a parent or guardian 18 or older to allow a child under 18 to possess a handgun under direct supervision or while they are receiving lessons from an instructor.

Supervisor Fixmer-Oraiz said change will have to come at a local level. 

“I don’t want them to do any more damage than they’ve already done,” they said, referring to the state legislature. “There’s absolutely nothing at the state or federal level that is going to come and be helpful. Nobody’s coming to help us in this moment.”

This is why it is so important that the county listens to community members, learn, and determine how to be supportive,” Fixmer-Oraiz said.

For Temple Hiatt, a volunteer with Iowa Moms Demand Action, advocating against gun violence is personal.

Hiatt’s nephew died by suicide from a gun in 2014. Grief strikes randomly and fuels Hiatt’s passion for gun safety.

“As survivors, it’s what we have to sit with,” Hiatt said, referring to emotions spiking in ways that can feel erratic. “You don’t know when it’s going to hit you, but it’s important to sit with those feelings, to sit with that grief, to sit with those moments.”

 Hiatt said it is empowering to grieve with others that have been impacted by gun violence and engage with the community to help others understand the toll that gun violence takes.

To support those impacted by the Ped Mall shooting, Hiatt helped lead a vigil on April 20. Over 100 community members and students marched from the Trinity Church to the Ped Mall to hold a vigil for those injured in the shooting.

Hiatt also went to the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to ask about the creation of a potential gun violence task force.

Hiatt said Johnson County is doing a solid job of addressing gun violence, as the county marks the lowest rate of gun violence deaths from 2020-2024 in the state with 6.9 deaths per 100,000 residents, according to data from Everytown for Gun Safety.  The data reports there were 54 gun deaths from 2020-2024 in the county. However, there is no data available from every county.

“There’s always an opportunity to do more, to look at what we’re doing as a community, to engage all of our community organizations and groups that are working towards preventing gun violence,” Hiatt said.

 Through her work with Moms Demand Action, Hiatt is a member of the Be SMART program, a campaign that promotes responsible gun ownership to reduce child gun deaths.

“We are doing a really good job here in Johnson County,” she said. “As far as addressing gun violence, there is an opportunity to do more for everyone in our community, to help create a culture of responsible gun ownership.” 

Pastorino, the UI student who was on the Ped Mall the night of the shooting, said although the shooting seems like an isolated incident, reform needs to take place. 

“We constantly say ‘thoughts and prayers’ for this event happening, but it doesn’t feel like anything is changing,” he said.

He said relaxed gun laws create more danger for everyone.

In the middle of finals season, Pastorino is working to process the night of the shooting. With daily responsibilities and the added stress of finals, he said it may take more time.

His friends have been supportive to help him navigate trauma as he wraps up his third year and prepares for the summer. 

“I feel like there are a ton of stressors going on there, and this is added on top of it to where processing it gives it a bigger longevity,” he said.