CORALVILLE, Iowa (AP) – A security guard at the Coral Ridge Mall is in custody, charged with first-degree murder, in connection with the shooting in the food court area at the mall, Friday evening.

Shooting victim: 20-yr. old Andrea Farrington.

22-year old Alexander Matthew Kozak, of North Liberty, admitted to authorities he shot 20-year-old Andrea Farrington, of Cedar Rapids, at least three times in the back with a nine-millimeter pistol. Farrington worked in the children’s museum at the mall.

A handgun and bullet casings were found at the scene. Farrington died at an Iowa City hospital. No one else was injured. Kozak fled the scene in a small car bearing Texas registration plates. About an hour after the shooting was reported, an Iowa State Patrol Trooper saw the suspect’s vehicle on Interstate 80 eastbound. The car was stopped about 50-miles east of the mall and Kozak was taken into custody without incident.

Kozak was being held in the Muscatine County Jail on $10 million bond. He was employed as a security officer at the Coral Ridge Mall since late 2014. He had been working at the mall on June 12th prior to the shooting.

Farrington graduated from Montezuma High School in 2012. Her family said working for the Children’s Museum at the mall for just over 6 months, was her dream job.

CORALVILLE, Iowa (AP) – Police have charged an eastern Iowa man with murder in the shooting death of a woman at a shopping mall in Coralville. Coralville police said they arrested 22-year-old Alexander Matthew Kozak, of North Liberty, on Friday night and charged him with first-degree murder.

Kozak is accused of shooting a 20-year-old woman at Coral Ridge Mall earlier Friday. The woman, whose name hasn’t been released, died at an Iowa City hospital. Soon after the shooting near the mall’s food court, officers spotted Kozak’s car on Interstate 80 near Davenport and arrested him without incident.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The 7:06-a.m. report w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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The summer months are always difficult for the Food Bank for the Heartland, which has a tough time meeting demand once the warm weather arrives. Spokesman Brian Barks says they put out collection barrels to take in donations of canned goods from Thanksgiving through Christmas, but the June through August time-frame is a challenge. “It is a struggle because people are busy,” Barks says. “Hunger is not a top-of-mind issue in the summer, so we see a drop-off in product donations and financial donations but we must meet the same need, if not greater.”

The Omaha-based agency distributes between one-point-two and one-point-five million pounds of food each month to food pantries in 93 counties across Nebraska and western Iowa. A program in the Omaha-Council Bluffs area delivers hot meals at no charge to 15 locations during the summer. For those outside the metro area, the food bank is holding 20 rural mobile pantries just during the month of June.

“We are distributing more and more food in areas of Nebraska and western Iowa,” Barks says. “There aren’t a lot of job opportunities out in rural communities. The population is getting older. If you’re in Omaha and you need assistance, there are a lot of places where you can go to get help, but if you’re living in a rural community, there’s very limited access to assistance.”

Some families are struggling with higher grocery bills now that school is out and many children aren’t getting free or reduced-price lunches at school. “In our service area, the best data that we have indicates there’s 220,000 people who struggle with the issue of hunger and 91,000 of those are kids under the age of 18,” Barks says. “Unfortunately, we’ve seen those numbers rise a little bit, despite all of our best efforts.”

Given the buying power of the food bank, he says one donated dollar can buy three meals. Learn how you can help at food-bank-heartland-dot-org.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

CORALVILLE – One person is dead and the suspect is in custody following a shooting Friday evening at the Coral Ridge Mall, in Coralville. Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Safety say the victim is female. Her name was being withheld pending notification of family. The suspect was stopped and arrested on Interstate 80 near Highway 61 by Iowa State Patrol along with Scott County Sheriff’s deputies.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — No new bird flu cases have been reported in nearly a week on commercial farms in Minnesota and Iowa. That has farmers, scientists and government officials hopeful the worst outbreak of bird flu in the U.S. is winding down, though they know it doesn’t mean the outbreak is over. The first turkey barn that was infected in Minnesota is restocking, and Iowa officials say they hope to begin to do the same in several weeks.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Jeb Bush is adding another Iowa event to his presidential announcement tour next week. The former Florida governor will appear at a backyard event in Washington, Iowa on Wednesday morning.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is facing new pressures in Iowa, a state that already views him as too moderate for socially conservative caucus voters. Many of Christie’s competitors for the Republican presidential nomination were in the state last weekend, for Senator Joni Ernst’s “roast and ride” to Boone. Christie, however, was not among them. He returned to Iowa for the first time in three months this week.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man and two of his children died in a crash on Interstate 10 while visiting Florida from Cedar Falls, Iowa. Officials say 39-year-old Benjamin Bartlett, 10-year-old Charles and 9-year-old Bailey died. Bartlett’s wife, 39-year-old Erin Bartlett, suffered minor injuries, and 7-year-old daughter Kaia was taken to the hospital in serious condition.

Iowa Senator Jonie Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, says she is still trying to sort through the information before taking a stance on repealing labeling of meat products so you can tell which country they come from. It’s called the Country of Origin Labeling or “COOL.”

“Member of our delegation are kind of split on this, so we’re working through those issues and figuring out where we need to go with this. We know we have been hit hard by the W-T-O (World Trade Organization) and they will continue to come after us as long as we have the labeling in place,” Ernst says. She says she likes the idea of know where products come from.

“I would love a way to highlight our American products — be able to label them as American — and make it work for the W-T-O. We’ve got to find some sort of compromise there,” Ernst says. The labeling covers beef, pork, and chicken, but she says the issue is much broader.

“It’s not just our agricultural industry which will be hit. It’s going to be many, many other industires, manufacturing and agriculture and the types of products that we are sending into Canada or into Mexico,” Ernst says. “So, we really need to take a look at what the W-T-O is saying and then decide how we want to move forward.” The repeal of COOL passed on a 300 to 131 vote in the U-S House. It’s future in the Senate is uncertain.

(Radio Iowa)

A Red Oak woman was arrested Friday, in Montgomery County. Authorities say 23-year old Amanda J. Huebner was taken into custody at around 1:40-p.m. at the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center, on a warrant for Interference with Official Acts. Huebner was being held in the jail on a $300 bond.

Authorities say a man’s body found Wednesday in a burned vehicle in Missouri with an infant is the father wanted in connection with an Iowa AMBER Alert. The man has been identified as 33-year-old Elvis Habibovic. Police in the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale had been looking nine-month old Logan Habibovic. An Amber Alert was issued for him early Wednesday morning with the belief that he’d been abducted by his father, Elvis. The alert matched the description of a burned vehicle found Tuesday evening in a conservation area in Harrison County, Missouri.

They are still waiting on D-N-A testing to identify the burned remains of the infant in the car. “We’ve been able to identify Elvis through dental records,” said Josh Eckerson, Harrison County Sheriff. “The child’s D-N-A has been sent to Jefferson City to the Highway Patrol Lab along with D-N-A from the mother to get a positive I-D on the child.” Eckerson said the official cause of death is still undetermined. “We speculate he piped in the fumes from the tailpipe into the car,” Eckerson said. “The actual cause of the fire is still undetermined.”

(Radio Iowa)