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Ed Thomas, the longtime head football coach at Aplington-Parkersburg High School in Parkersburg, Iowa, was shot to death in the school weight room on the morning of June 24, 2009, in front of about 20 students who had come in for a summer workout.

Thomas, 58, was hit six or seven times, according to testimony later given by the state medical examiner, who also described blunt force injuries to the coach's head, chest and legs consistent with kicking or stomping. Thomas died at a Waterloo hospital. None of the students in the room were hurt.

Mark Becker, 24, a former Aplington-Parkersburg player who had played for Thomas, was arrested the same morning and charged with first-degree murder. Becker had been taken into custody the previous Saturday in Cedar Falls, where police said he threatened a homeowner with a bat and then led officers on a high-speed chase. He was admitted to Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo for psychiatric evaluation and released the day before the shooting. Cedar Falls police had asked to be told before he was discharged. The hospital said afterward that its staff had not been asked to notify authorities.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation released five of the 911 recordings in July 2009 and withheld six others, saying they were part of the open criminal case. Three of the five were intelligible. In one, a resident, Leah Vanderholt, called after students who ran from the weight room gathered at a house nearby. Others captured problems in the response. Parkersburg Police Chief Chris Luhring told the Butler County communications center he could not raise an ambulance by radio, a dispatcher told him a helicopter was 15 minutes out, and dispatchers spent time hunting for a cell phone number for someone with the ambulance crew.

At trial, Becker's attorneys pleaded insanity and called four mental health experts who testified that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Testimony described Becker telling people that Thomas was Satan and had been tormenting him. Prosecutors argued he understood what he was doing. On March 2, 2010, jurors rejected the insanity defense and convicted Becker of first-degree murder.

District Judge Stephen Carroll sentenced Becker on April 14, 2010, to the mandatory penalty of life in prison without parole. Two of the coach's sons addressed him at the hearing. "Every day as you live in jail, I want you to reflect on what you stole from us," said Todd Thomas, the oldest. Iowa lawmakers passed a measure known as the Ed Thomas Bill in March 2010 that requires hospitals to notify law enforcement before releasing a psychiatric patient who is facing criminal charges.