by Doyle Murphy
April 21, 2015
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An abusive cop-turned-felon in Iowa strangled his girlfriend before killing himself, authorities said.
Urbandale police officers found the lifeless bodies of ex-Des Moines patrolman Mersed Dautovic and Mevlida Dzananovic on Sunday in the garage of the suburban apartment complex where he lived.
Dautovic, who’d served time in a police brutality case, hanged himself, police Sgt. Gary Lang told the Daily News.
His girlfriend wasn’t hanged, but the sergeant declined to elaborate.
The couple had lived together until recently when Dzananovic moved out, a development that apparently angered the hot-headed former lawman.
The 24-year-old woman called 911 on March 28 after a frightening meeting with Dautovic at a Kum & Go gas station in nearby Waukee.
Former Des Moines police Officer Mersed Dautovic hanged himself in his apartment garage after strangling his girlfriend, authorities say.
She told an Iowa State trooper they were supposed to discuss their struggling relationship, but Dautovic grew enraged when she wouldn’t turn over her cellphone.
The 32-year-old punched her in the mouth, twisted her right hand and tore her leggings, Dzananovic said, according to an incident report.
The trooper noted the young mom’s split lip, scratched wrist and ripped clothing in his account. Dzananovic’s 5-year-old son was in her car.
Dautovic was later stopped in Des Moines and claimed the petite mom attacked him in a “jealous rage.”
The story fell flat with the trooper, who couldn’t find any injuries to back up his claims.
Mevlida Dzananovic, 24, was killed by her boyfriend, an abusive ex-cop, in a murder-suicide in Urbandale, Iowa, authorities say.
Dautovic was arrested on an aggravated assault charge and later released.
He had served 20 months in federal prison for brutally beating a man during a traffic stop in 2008. Dautovic and his partner in the Des Moines Police Department clubbed the man with metal batons, breaking his arm, shattering his hand and splitting open his scalp as the man slipped in and out of consciousness, court records showed.
He was released in 2014, but prosecutors appealed and won a rare opportunity to have the heavy-handed cop sentenced again.
He was due to learn his fate at a court appearance on Monday, but he killed Dzananovic and himself the day before, the Des Moines Register reported.
Prosecutors had planned to ask for a 14-year sentence, according to the paper.
Former Des Moines police 32-year-old Mersed Dautovic hanged himself in an Urbandale, Iowa garage after strangling his girlfriend to death, authorities say.
Urbandale cops found the bodies after Dautovic’s relatives couldn’t reach him and grew concerned.
Friends and relatives of Dzananovic, who also used the last name Jusic, blasted the abusive ex-cop as they made funeral arrangements for the doomed mother.
“I think you commit a crime or do something stupid, you have to pay the price,” friend Adnan Burzic told KCCI. “Don’t bring everybody else down with you.”