Chekesha Clark: Iowa Woman Shot Dead Near AppleBees Parking Lot

Chekesha Clark, 29, was found dead on Friday, Feb. 22, 2019 outside an Applebees parking lot in Altoona. The father of her child, the suspected gunman, was also found dead hours later.

Chekesha Clark was a young mother trying to raise a small child in Des Moines, Iowa. The 29-year-old was doing the best she could, but there was trouble.

Clark and the father of her child were having problems. On Feb. 22, 2019, a Friday night, Clark spent her last moments embroiled in an argument outside the restaurant.

Moments later, police received a 911 call saying that a woman had gotten shot in the parking lot near an Applebees.

Passersby told local media that the shooting unnerved them.

"It got scary realizing what was going on, especially because I have friends that work in there," Amanda Bevins, who lives nearby, "I was scared for them."

Clark’s body was found about 11 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 22, 2019 near the restaurant in Altoona, local media reported. She had suffered a gunshot wound, according to news reports.

Authorities said the suspected gunman, identified as 30-year-old Kalen Burgess, fled the scene.

When authorities did a welfare check on a Des Moines home about 1:15 a.m., they found his lifeless body outside, dead apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot.