FORT DODGE –Webster County Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the identification, apprehension and prosecution of anyone involved in Tuesday’s double homicide in the 900 block of 10th Avenue Southwest.

Crime Stoppers said in a Tuesday release that the reward was available for anyone providing information regarding a person or people “engaged in the criminal activity occurring in the area of the 900 block of 10th Avenue Southwest.”

Tips can be provided anonymously to Webster County Crime Stoppers by calling 515-574-1444 or by texting “LEC” followed by the tip to 274637. A system is in place to deliver rewards without disclosing identity.

Two bystanders were killed and two more were injured after a shooting around 4:45 a.m. Tuesday.

Fort Dodge police responding to calls found Jamael Cox, 25, of Fort Dodge, unresponsive at the crime scene where he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. Nearby, survivors Marissa Andrews, 21, of Fort Dodge, and Jayne Bartrom, 30, of Wesley, were injured by stray bullets.

Cox, found lying in the street, suffered a gunshot wound to the upper torso, police reported.

Shortly after finding the first three, police found another victim of the shooting who managed to flee the scene in his vehicle. Tyrone Cunningham, 47, of Fort Dodge, was found in his crashed vehicle at the intersection of South 15th Street and Sixth Avenue South.

Police said Cunningham lost consciousness after being shot in his lower extremities. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the single-vehicle crash.

Andrews was taken to UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center in stable condition with gunshot wounds in her face and leg before being transferred to a Des Moines hospital for treatment.

Bartrom was treated and subsequently released from Trinity after being struck in the lower leg.

The reward offered was funded by an anonymous donor, long before the shooting happened, with this specific purpose in mind, said John Bruner, president of the Crime Stoppers executive committee.

“This money was donated a long time ago … with instructions to be used for a very serious crime,” he said. “This is the first time we’ve had a chance to use it.”

Bruner said that reward amounts are determined by partners at the Webster County Sheriff’s Office, Fort Dodge Police Department and the Webster County Attorney’s Office. In this case, their recommendation was unanimous.

Typically, he said a reward this high is volunteered by anonymous donors to solve cold cases. Because of their charter, Crime Stoppers is prohibited from offering a reward more than $1,000, but can act as a conduit for private citizens or businesses wishing to offer such a higher reward.

Since 2001, Webster County Crime Stoppers has paid out $170,000 in rewards and made 1,800 arrests thanks to collaboration between citizens and law enforcement.

After the last double homicide in October 2018, when brothers El Dominic and Marion Rhodes were murdered in downtown Fort Dodge, detectives quickly had suspect Tanner King in custody. King was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in January.

The last homicide in 2020 was in January, when defendant Mark Russell allegedly killed his ex-girlfriend’s mother with a golf club.