Charly Haley

chaley@dmreg.com

William Dawson Jr. had two questions when he woke up from surgery Saturday night at Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines.

How's Carley? And how's Dad?

The three were together Friday night before an argument led to gunfire at an east-side bar. Dawson was shot. He knew his dad and girlfriend were shot, too.

Carley was doing OK, his mother reassured him. Dawson's girlfriend had suffered gunshot wounds to her thighs and one knee, but she'd make it.

But what about Dad?

"I couldn't lie to him," Rhonda Dawson said. "I was like, 'no, bud,' and he had one little teardrop fall. And that was it ... he hasn't said a word about it since."

William Dawson Sr., 40, died early Saturday morning after being shot in the back of his head and leg while standing in the parking lot of Johnny Mac's Bar and Grill, 2279 Hubbell Ave., according to Des Moines police.

Dawson Jr., 20, was shot in the abdomen and leg, his mother said. Carley Toomey, also 20, was shot in both legs. She was scheduled for additional surgery Tuesday. Both are expected to survive.

Police arrested Devin Carter, 26, of Des Moines in connection to the shooting. He is charged with first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, and felon in possession of a firearm.

"I hope he gets what he deserves," Rhonda Dawson said. "He obviously doesn’t know what he’s taken from everybody."

She was not at the bar when the shooting occurred, but she's heard from people at the bar that it all started with an argument over a $7 pitcher of beer. Police have not commented on a motive.

Rhonda Dawson was back at the hospital Monday to visit her son and the girlfriend she counts as a member of her family.

"To see my son … the way he is now, it’s not easy to do," she said. "And poor Carley, she’s just a little thing, you know?”

Dawson is also missing her husband and grieving his death. The couple had been separated off and on in recent years — a more permanent separation began about a year and a half ago — but the two remained close.

"We're great friends. He's still my husband," Rhonda Dawson said. The last time she saw him was the night before he died. The two chatted at her house and then visited his parents' house.

"Everybody loved Bill. He could turn a bad situation into a good one usually," Dawson said. "He loved his kids, loved the grandkids, loved me, loved his sister, his mom and dad, he loved everybody.

“He was a good guy. He didn’t deserve that."

Dawson and her husband also have a 24-year-old daughter. The younger William Dawson and Toomey are the parents of a 2-year-old girl.

Some of Rhonda Dawson's favorite memories about her husband include small arguments they had as a couple — they still make her laugh — and how close he was with their only son.

“I just miss him, and the kids miss him, and I know the world misses him, because he was a good person," she said.

Rhonda Dawson said she doesn't know the man arrested for the shooting. Her son doesn't know him either, she said.

“Something like this can happen to you even if you’re in a good place, but there’s higher risk when you’re out there in the bars," she said. "I just feel like that life, it’s no good. It may seem fun and everything, but in the blink of an eye, someone can be gone, over something stupid. And you can’t get them back.

"I just wanted everybody to know that (you should) just keep your family close to you, and try to protect them, and try to teach them," she said.

A Go Fund Me page has been created to help the family pay medical bills and funeral expenses.