Campus Alert Archive
Drake

Bulldog Alert: 'Four to Five Rounds' Fired Between Vehicles at 25th and University

IAshootingemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

On Sunday evening, February 18, 2024, shots were fired between two vehicles traveling southbound near 25th Street and University Avenue, on the edge of Drake University's Des Moines campus. Drake's Bulldog Alert pushed a campus-wide notification while Des Moines police responded. According to the police report, the occupants of one vehicle yelled at the other and fired "four to five rounds" before chasing each other south on 25th Street. The case was suspended with no arrests.

Alerts
1
Response
min
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
Drake University
Private Masters · IA
~4,500 studentsBulldog Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

1 message in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from Times-Delphic reporting on the campus-wide Bulldog Alert115 chars
Bulldog Alert: Shots fired reported from vehicles near 25th St and University Ave. Avoid the area. Police on scene.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Pushed Sunday evening, February 18, 2024 — second campus-wide Bulldog Alert for shots fired in 27 days at Drake.
Drive-by between two moving vehicles is unusual for a campus alert; most Drake-area shots-fired incidents originate at fixed locations like the Walgreens parking lot.
Verbatim wording not preserved publicly; reconstructed from Times-Delphic reporting.
Context

Background

Drake University sits in a residential pocket of Des Moines bordered by University Avenue, the kind of busy commercial corridor where off-campus violence regularly bleeds into the Bulldog Alert system. February 18, 2024 was the second time in 27 days that Drake pushed a campus-wide alert for shots fired near University Avenue: the January 22, 2024 incident involved a man named James Patrick at a Walgreens parking lot at 31st and University, while the February 18 episode involved gunfire between two moving vehicles. Des Moines police described the latter as escalating from one vehicle's occupants yelling at the other before firing four to five rounds, then chasing each other down 25th Street. The case was suspended without arrests. During the 2023-2024 academic year, Drake counted five violent crimes on or just off campus, none fatal, and the Bulldog Alert pattern increasingly routed off-campus University Avenue gunfire into students' phones.
Analysis

Key Findings

Drake's Bulldog Alert system handled two campus-wide shots-fired alerts within 27 days in early 2024, both tied to off-campus University Avenue corridor incidents.
The drive-by exchange between two moving vehicles is an alert pattern that exposes the limits of "avoid the area" guidance — the area was the suspect vehicle itself, not a fixed location.
Des Moines police suspended the case without arrests, consistent with the difficulty of solving moving-vehicle drive-by shootings between unidentified suspects.
Outcome
Case suspended by Des Moines Police Department with no arrests. No reported injuries. The incident was the second campus-wide Bulldog Alert in less than a month, following a January 22, 2024 shots-fired incident at the Walgreens parking lot at 31st Street and University Avenue.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Student Paper
    Students discuss campus safety in prep for Relays (Times-Delphic)
    timesdelphic.com
  2. Official
    Setting Up or Changing Bulldog Alert Text Message Notifications
    drake.teamdynamix.com
  3. Official
    Active Shooter | Drake University
    drake.edu
Tags
IowaDrakeDes MoinesBulldog Alertdrive-by-shootingoff-campuscase-suspendedBig-Ten-region
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion