Facebook/Northern Iowa Micalla Rettinger is a former Northern Iowa softball player who was killed in an apparently random shooting while driving with her boyfriend.
Micalla Rettinger has been identified as the 25-year-old Iowa woman who was killed in an apparently random shooting while driving. Rettinger was driving her boyfriend home from work on April 28 when a bullet came through her driver’s window and struck her in the neck, Waterloo Police say. Her 32-year-old boyfriend, Adam Kimball, was also injured, but is expected to survive. Another passenger was not wounded.
Rettinger, a Kansas native, graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 2016 and was a member of the Panthers softball team. No suspects have been arrested in the shooting and a $7,000 reward has been offered for information about the case, according to police.
“There is nothing to indicate the victims in this case were in any way involved in any activity that would have caused them to be targeted in this manner,” Waterloo Police Major Joe Leibold told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.
Police Are Asking for Help Finding Locating Anyone Who Was Hunting in the Area, Legally or Illegally, or Anyone Who May Have Seen ‘Suspicious Activity’
Micalla Rettinger.
Micalla Rettinger and her two passengers were found in her car about 2:30 a.m. after Waterloo Police were called to a report of an accident on Highway 218 near the Greenhill exit, according to a press release.
“At this time it appears the vehicle had been traveling south on 218 when it was struck by a single gunshot. The bullet entered the vehicle, striking two of the three occupants,” police said. “The driver of the vehicle, Micalla Rettinger, died at the scene. A male occupant, Adam Kimball, was taken to Allen Hospital for his injuries and later transported to University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics for further treatment. The third occupant was uninjured.” Kimball was shot in the face, police said.
Police said the shooting occurred while Rettinger’s Jeep was crossing the bridge over Brinker Lake and the Cedar River in a heavily wooded area, The Courier reports. Rettinger and her boyfriend both worked at Mulligan’s Brick Oven in Cedar Falls, the bar’s owner told the newspaper.
Waterloo Police added, “The Waterloo Police Department is asking for the public’s help in locating any person who may be involved in shooting or hunting (legal or illegal) in the area of the Cedar River between the Highway 218 Bridge and the Conger Ave Bridge. We are also asking anyone who may have seen any suspicious activity in this area or has a trail/surveillance camera in this area to contact the Waterloo Police Department Investigations Division at 319-291-4340 Option 7 or Cedar Valley Crime Stoppers at 855-300-8477.”
Police said there were no other vehicles seen on the road at the time and no reports of issues or trouble leading up to the shooting, The Courier reports. There were also no reports of gunshots in the area prior to the shooting and no other damage reported to vehicles, police said.
“One of the first things we looked into is to whether these people were involved in a dispute or something that had occurred earlier. The passenger said there was nothing like that. They simply left work and drove here. There wasn’t a lot of traffic. So there wasn’t they cut something off, nothing that occurred to the passenger in the vehicle. They simply left work and were driving home. There was nothing unusual, nothing that got their attention,” Liebold told WHO-TV.
Rettinger Was a Star Softball Player at Northern Iowa
Micalla Rettinger.
Rettinger was a star softball player at the University of Northern Iowa from 2013 to 2016, according to the Panthers website. Rettinger, whose nickname was KK, played outfield.
“Sunday morning, we lost a member of the Panther family. We are devastated to learn of the senseless death of Micalla Rettinger,” Director of Athletics David Harris said in a statement. “This news is heartbreaking to our softball team, UNI Athletics and the entire campus. Our thoughts and prayers are with Micalla’s family and friends.”
Head Softball Coach Ryan Jacobs added, “I am devastated. KK was a pretty special kid to us. I can still see the smile on her face and I remember the way she always thought of other people first in a genuine way. When we had youth camps, she was the one that all of the kids on campus would be drawn to. This is a huge loss to our team and everyone that knew her.”
She earned second-team Missouri Valley All-Conference honors her junior and senior seasons and was the team’s leading hitter during her senior year, according to the Panthers website. She graduated from the university in 2016 with a biology degree.
She Grew Up in Kansas, Graduated From Park Hill High School & Wanted to Be a Dentist
FacebookMicalla Rettinger with her father, Steve Rettinger.
Rettinger was a native of Lenexa, Kansas, and graduate of Park Hill High School in Missouri, according to the Northern Iowa website.
“A four year letter recipient in softball, Micalla also earned three letters in basketball. Micalla earned a number of honors throughout her softball career including four All-District teams, three of which were first team honors, a trio of first team All-District honors, and second team All-State honor following her senior season. Micalla’s favorite high school memory was winning their teams memorial day tournament when she was a freshmen,” her bio on the softball team’s website said.
Rettinger’s father, Steve Rettinger, told the Des Moines Register, “(The world) lost a good-hearted person, who was a good citizen, and they probably lost a person who would have become a damn good dentist. She was very committed (to becoming a dentist). At the same time, she found time for her friends and family and making the world a better place.”
Tributes to Rettinger Have Poured in & Northern Iowa Remembered Her With a Moment of Silence Before the Panthers Final Softball Game of the Season
Micalla Rettinger, right.
Tributes to Rettinger from former teammates and friends have poured in on social media after her death. The Northern Iowa Panthers softball team held a moment of silence on Tuesday before the team’s final game of the season in her memory.
Chelsea Ross, her Northern Iowa teammate, wrote on Facebook, “KK, I love you. If the endless amount of good I could say about you would bring you back, I’d talk about you until my last breath. Thank you for being a one of a kind person and bringing more light into this world than any of us ever realized. Thank you for being a best friend to me. Thank you for dreaming big enough for everyone around you. Thank you for loving me. To the most beautiful soul I’ve ever known, thank you. I will love you until my final day. Forever a best friend, forever my teammate, forever my roommate, forever my karaoke partner, and forever the Sandy Olsson to my Danny Zuko. Fly high my girl? give dad a hug, I know he’s so happy he gets to be with his sweet KK?”
Maegen Lembeck, Rettinger’s coworker at Mulligan’s, wrote on Facebook, “My heart is in a million pieces this morning and I still don’t think I’ve wrapped my head around the news that you’re gone. Micalla Rettinger you were the brightest light in any room and had the most contagious smile. I’m so grateful Mulligans brought us together and the family will never be the same without you. You gave so much in this life and deserved so much more out of it, but I hope you rest easy until we hear you sing again ?”
Rettinger’s Father Called the Shooting ‘So Random & Senseless’
Micalla Rettinger.
Steve Rettinger said about the shooting, “It seems so out of the ordinary and so random and senseless that I can’t even get my mind around it.”
The elder Rettinger was in Florida visiting his father, who is battling cancer, when he received the news, according to the Des Moines Register. He told the newspaper he woke up inexplicably about the same time his daughter was shot. “I must’ve woke up right when it was happening,” he told the newspaper.
Kelly Lange Rettinger, Micalla’s stepmother, wrote on Facebook, “I never thought I would have to post something like this. My beautiful step daughter, Micalla Rettinger, was taken senselessly from us yesterday morning. She was shot through her car window on a highway near Waterloo. I will link the most current article in the comments. KK, I love you. I promise I will take care of your daddy for you. I don’t know what else to say.”
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