PARKERSBURG, Iowa — - A high school coach who helped launch several professional football careers was gunned down by a former player Wednesday morning in front of students taking part in an off-season workout, authorities said.
Mark Becker, who was supposed to have been taken to a hospital psychiatric ward after allegedly leading police on a high-speed chase Saturday night, unloaded several rounds into Aplington-Parkersburg High School football coach Ed Thomas and was arrested at a nearby home soon afterward, said Kevin Winker, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
Winker said he couldn't discuss what Becker's motive for the slaying might have been, or what Becker might have been up to in the days leading up to the shooting.
