(UPDATE) WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A former University of Northern Iowa softball player was killed when she was struck by a bullet in the neck while driving on U.S. Highway 218 early Sunday morning. According to Waterloo Police, 25-year old Micalla Alexis Rettinger, of Cedar Falls, was identified as the woman pronounced dead following the incident that happened at around 2:40-a.m., Sunday. A passenger in her vehicle, 32-year old Adam Jake Kimball was injured in the shooting.
According to police, Rettinger was driving southbound on Highway 218 when a bullet shattered a side window and hit her in the neck. The projectile then struck Kimball. Rettinger pulled over near the Greenhill Road exit and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police say Kimball was taken to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City and is expected to survive. A second man in the vehicle wasn’t injured.
Police say the shooting happened as Rettinger’s Jeep was crossing the bridge over Brinker Lake and the Cedar River. The area below is heavily wooded. Waterloo Police were investigating the area around Brinker Lake as they continue to investigate the shooting. Initial reports are that there were no other vehicles on the highway in that area, and there hadn’t been any trouble or other incident leading up to the shooting. Police haven’t received any other reports of vehicles damaged by gunfire, and there were no reports of gunshots in any surrounding areas during the time frame. Investigators are collecting fragments of the bullet for ballistics purposes.
Rettinger, a native of Lenexa, Kansas, was a four-year softball player at UNI from 2013-2016.