Grant Rodgers, and Kathy A. Bolten

Des Moines Register

Just two hours before Scott Michael Greene allegedly ambushed two Des Moines-area police officers, he was on the phone with his oldest daughter, having what she described as the "most normal conversation that we've ever had."

On Friday, Sammie Greene was standing with her younger sister, Madison, outside the Polk County jail, trying to reconcile how the man she has viewed as a compassionate parent could be charged with two counts of murder.

"I've seen my dad angry," she said in a prepared statement. "I've never seen him get angry to the point something like this could have ever been imaginable."

Both daughters arrived before 8:30 a.m. Friday for Scott Greene's initial appearance before District Associate Judge William Price in a small courtroom at the jail. The daughters watched the hearing, which lasted less than a minute, on a live video feed in a viewing area with journalists.

Greene is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Urbandale Police Officer Justin Martin and Des Moines Police Sgt. Anthony "Tony" Beminio.

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Criminal complaints filed by an assistant Polk County attorney accuse Greene of using a high-powered rifle at close range to kill the officers in their patrol cars in separate attacks about 20 minutes and 2 miles apart early Wednesday morning.

Greene, who wore glasses, was shackled and wore a pink jail uniform. Three members of the jail's utility response team — staffers who are specially trained to respond to critical situations — surrounded Greene. That extra security measure was planned because Greene is considered a "high-risk" inmate, said Polk County sheriff's Lt. Rich Blaylock.

The judge approved Greene's request to be represented by a court-appointed defense attorney and assigned the case to the Polk County office of the state public defender. Then he set a $10 million cash-only bond before Greene was ushered back to his cell and given a paper copy of the criminal complaints filed against him.

Outside the jail, his daughters tried to make sense of what they had seen. Sammie Greene replayed her Tuesday night phone call with her father at about 11 p.m., just before she went to bed, and said she heard nothing that made her think he was preparing to act violently.

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Sammie Greene said she will stand by her father through the coming criminal proceedings, even though she doesn't understand or condone what he's accused of doing.

“As the daughters of the accused, we would like to say and express our deepest sympathies to the families of the lost and the officers themselves," Greene, 25, said, with Madison, 15, standing beside her. "We do not condone what our father has done. It was a shock to even us that a man we knew so well was capable of doing something so tragic. But we were taught to love unconditionally, so we will live by what was instilled upon us."

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Complaints outline slayings, arrest

The criminal complaints say Scott Greene "willfully, deliberately, and with premeditation" killed Martin and Beminio. Police officials have released no information about what motivated Greene to shoot the officers.

According to the criminal complaint, Martin, 24, was shot multiple times with a high-powered rifle. Witnesses heard multiple gunshots and saw a man walk away from the officer's patrol car and get into a dark-colored pickup truck with a "mismatched" topper.

Greene fled in his truck, driving toward Des Moines, according to the court document. At about 1:09 a.m. Wednesday, the vehicle Greene was driving approached the intersection of Merle Hay Road and Sheridan Avenue, where Beminio, 38, was stopped at a stop sign, the document says.

Greene turned his truck toward Beminio's squad car, "stopped and without hesitation discharged multiple rounds into the driver side door area" of the squad car, according to the document.

Officials have said neither officer had time to react to the ambush.

The Register reached out to Greene at the jail, but he did not contact a reporter.

Greene's truck, the high-powered rifle and "evidence similar to evidence found" at the scene at each attack was found in an area in Dallas County where Greene was apprehended, the complaint said.

Greene was taken into custody less than nine hours after the shootings after he turned himself over to a Department of Natural Resources employee in a rural area of the county.

Daughter: No previous anger at police

Greene has been monitored since being booked into the jail at 3:12 p.m. Thursday, said Blaylock, a spokesman for the Polk County Sheriff's Office. There had been no concerning incidents involving him as of 8 a.m. Friday, he said.

Greene was initially taken to a Des Moines hospital after being apprehended Wednesday when he complained about a pre-existing medical condition. A small bandage was visible on Greene's left arm during the Friday morning hearing.

Sammie Greene "could not tell" whether her father was under pressure or stress, she said. She declined to speak about whether her father had been diagnosed with mental health issues, but he felt intense pain when his Vietnam veteran father died from cancer in 2010, she said.

"He's never once showed any ill action or thought against the police, so it's a complete shock," she said.

The daughters' description of their father's nurturing behavior toward them contrasts with other accounts of his behavior toward others, reflected in court records and interviews.

Greene had a history of confrontations with police officers and racially charged provocations.

For instance, he pleaded guilty to harassment in 2014 after threatening to kill a man and calling him the N-word, records show. He was also arrested that year for being "combative" toward Urbandale police officers who were trying to search him for a weapon.

Madison Greene's grandmother, whose daughter was in a relationship with the accused shooter for 16 years, told the Register on Thursday that she worried about Greene's erratic behavior for years and warned her daughter to stay away from him after they split.

Greene also had been ordered to move out of his mother's house on Tuesday after a weeks-long dispute that involved allegations of domestic and elder abuse.

Price scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case for Nov. 14, during which prosecutors could be required to show evidence that there is probable cause for the case to continue. Defendants routinely waive such hearings.

An arraignment will be scheduled so that Greene can enter a formal plea to the charges.

Sammie Greene said after the hearing that she had not spoken to her father since he was booked into the jail, but hoped to have an opportunity soon.

"I don't want to speak to my dad about any of the actions that he's accused of whatsoever," she said. "I want him to know that he has been by my side … through everything that I have done within my life, and I will continue to stand by him as his daughter."