Scott Michael Greene: Iowa police shooting suspect

Scott Michael Greene has been apprehended as a suspect in the killings

A profile of the man suspected of killing of two Iowa police officers early this morning is beginning to take shape. This was not Scott Michael Greene's first brush with law enforcement.

The Des Moines Police Department identified Greene, 46, as the main suspect in Wednesday's killing of two police officers in an "ambush-style" attack.

Police said Greene was a white male and resident of Urbandale, Iowa, a city just outside of Des Moines.

The first shooting took place less than a mile from the Greene's last known address in Urbandale, and crime scene investigators were briefly at the home.

Urbandale Chief Ross McCarty told reporters that Greene was known to "most" of their officers, and that police have been to his home many times.

The local newspaper reports that a man with the same name and date of birth as Greene has had several run-ins with local law enforcement, including an incident in 2014 where he threatened to kill a man in a car park and called him a racial slur.

In another 2014 incident, Greene was reportedly "noncompliant, hostile, combative" when Urbandale police officers tried to pat him down for weapons.

The paper also says that a probation officer wrote in June 2015 that Greene received a "mental health evaluation" and "reports to have complied with the medication recommendations".

A YouTube channel linked by multiple media outlets to Greene seems to show several videos and photos from a high school football game at Urbandale High School on 14 October, 2016.

Police officials would not be drawn on connecting directly Greene to these videos.

One YouTube video is nothing but a still image of a man holding a Confederate and American flag in front of several African-American spectators.

In another clip titled "Civil Rights Violation at Urbandale High School" and tagged the same date, the man behind the camera is arguing with several police officers.

At one point the Confederate flag is visible at his side. He complains that he was "assaulted" by several African-American people behind him, but he cannot identify them.

"When you fly the Confederate flag in front of several African-American people that's going to cause a disturbance," an officer tells him near the end of the video.

The man behind the camera says several times throughout the clip that he was at the game to mount a "peaceful protest".

Chief McCarty confirmed that Greene had recently shown up to a high school football game waving a Confederate flag in the stands.

But he wasn't able to directly link the YouTube videos to that incident.

"He was waving it during the national anthem and he had picked some people of colour to wave it in front," Chief McCarty told reporters.

"People in the crowd that felt that was offensive and that he should be removed."

The police chief said Greene had a daughter at the high school.