Officers responded to a report of shots fired at 1:06 AM and found an Urbandale Police Department officer who had been shot.
Authorities from several agencies saturated the area after that shooting, and about 20 minutes later discovered that a Des Moines officer had been shot in a patrol car at an intersection, Des Moines Sgt. Paul Parizek said.
The shootings happened about 2 miles apart and both took place along main streets that cut through residential areas.
The shootings follow a spate of police killings, including ambushes of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Five officers were killed in Dallas on July 7 and three were killed later that month in Baton Rouge.
More From This Section
Authorities in Iowa are developing suspect information but they have nothing that they are ready to share with the public, Parizek said. Officers are now conducting patrols in pairs for protection, he said.
Parizek said he wouldn't release more information about the shootings.
Urbandale Sgt. Chad Underwood said Urbandale officers are equipped with body cameras, but they don't run constantly and it's unclear whether there was video of the shootings. Urbandale is a suburb of about 40,000 people in the Des Moines metro area with about 50 officers. Officials in Urbandale cancelled school for the day.
Des Moines has about 375 sworn officers.