‘We need help and we’re not getting it’: what a surge in murders means for Black women in Iowa

More than six times as many Black women were killed in Iowa in 2020 than the year before. What is driving the gun violence?

On Christmas day 2020, while millions of American families were navigating virtual holiday gatherings, Jeremy Hepker was sitting in an Iowa City hospital room holding the hand of Marisa Doolin, his teenage niece. Doolin had been shot in the face three days earlier and was in a medically induced coma to stop the swelling in her brain. The next day, Doolin's family decided to take the 18-year-old off of life support.

I felt so powerless, I felt so angry and I felt vengeful," Hepker said.