Iowa authorities investigating 19-year-old’s murder at Taylor County bar

CLEARFIELD, Iowa (WOWT) – Authorities in Taylor County, Iowa, are investigating after a 19-year-old man was shot and killed early Thursday morning.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations reports Taylor County dispatchers received several shooting calls around 3:20 a.m. Deputies responded to Bootleggers Bar and Grill on Broadway Street in the town of Clearfield. A male victim was found unresponsive on the ground with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head.

The reporting deputy alleges in an arrest affidavit he saw a man later identified as the suspect standing against an SUV near the victim’s body. He allegedly admitted to being the shooter; the deputy then detained him and transported him to the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office. Along with several witnesses at the scene telling deputies they watched the suspect shoot and kill the victim, he admitted to a DCI agent he had killed 19-year-old Colby Nelson of Lenox. It was revealed the two men had a disagreement in the bar earlier that night, which escalated to an argument when the shooter tried to leave.

The suspect, identified as Alan Schultz, 37, of Bedford, left the bar on his motorcycle before returning with a loaded handgun in a different vehicle. Schultz then allegedly confronted Nelson twice before shooting him in the face, unloading his handgun and waiting for deputies to arrive. He was booked into the Taylor County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder.

A forensic autopsy will be performed on Nelson’s body by the Iowa State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny.

The investigation is ongoing, and the Iowa DCI does not plan to release further information at this time.

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