POWESHIEK COUNTY, Iowa – We dislike using the word “routine” when it come to law enforcement since “routine” calls, actions, etc. quickly and frequently turn into anything but “routine.” The latest example comes to us from the Iowa State Patrol where troopers stopped to assist a stranded motorist with a jump-start of his stalled vehicle, and wound up discovering a dead man who had been shot twice and concealed under a pile of clothing inside the car.
While patrolling on Interstate 80 in Poweshiek County, Iowa state troopers noticed a silver Chevy Malibu parked on the shoulder of the road at about 8:20 a.m. on Tuesday. The driver, later identified as 23-year-old Jihad Abdul Malik Gasaway, was standing next to the car. He told troopers that he needed a jump start, according to a department press release, Fox News reported.
“Upon further investigation… [Gasaway] stated that he was in possession of a firearm and produced it,” the release said. “Troopers were able to secure the firearm and the male suspect.”
In the process, troopers noticed an unresponsive man who was covered by a pile of clothing and slumped over the passenger seat. The press statement said this was Gasaway’s “attempt to conceal the body.”
Upon further examination, troopers determined the deceased individual had suffered two gunshot wounds to the chest.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by Fox News Digital, “[Gasaway] did not notify anyone of the male subject inside the vehicle [or]… call 911 to request medical assistance. [Gasaway] did not advise the Troopers on scene that there was someone in a medical emergency in the vehicle or… deceased in the vehicle.”
The dead man was later identified as 26-year-old Kemp Xavier Sherrod Harriel, according to the news outlet.
As Gasaway sat in the patrol unit and saw troopers encounter the body, he could reportedly be heard on a police recording saying “please be OK.”
During a further search of the car, troopers located a spent 9mm shell casing on the floorboard, and two fired bullets lodged in the passenger door.
During later crime lab testing, both rounds were found to match Gasaway’s Taurus 9mm handgun.
Gasaway was taken into custody and interviewed at the Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office. According to the affidavit, he told investigators that he and Harriel were traveling together from Cedar Rapids to Des Moines that morning.
Investigators learned that someone – other troopers or another motorist – had reported two hours prior to the initial contact that the same Chevy Malibu was in a ditch about 20 miles earlier along the road.
Investigators asked whether Harriel was alive when they drove into the ditch. Gasaway replied “yeah.” When asked what happened, he simply said “we got into it.”
Gasaway insisted that he “didn’t know [Harriel] was gone until [he] watched the police eyes and read his lips… that’s when I started crying in the car.”
Before the troopers searched his car, Gasaway claimed, Harriel “was alive and talking to [him].”
Investigators asked why Harriel’s body was buried in a stack of clothes. Gasway said he “thought [Harriel] was very cold.”
“[I] kept him warm because we were both cold,” Gasaway said, according to the affidavit. “I just waited for the police.”
Gasaway was initially charged on Tuesday with abuse of a corpse and booked into Poweshiek County Jail on $50,000 bail, per an Iowa Department of Public Safety press release, Fox reported.
However, once the crime lab tests and autopsy were completed, Harriel’s death was ruled a homicide and the charges were upgraded to first-degree murder on Thursday. Presumably his bail was increased with the upgraded charge, but that is unconfirmed.
