By Rae Yost and Caitlin Leitzen, The Globe Gazette 

FOREST CITY — Blood stains Friday marked the spot of the apparent shooting Thursday of a Forest City police officer by a Division of Criminal Investigation agent just outside the rear door of an apartment building at 806 S. Seventh St.

Building owner John Schissel of Fertile confirmed the blood was from last night’s incident.

No bullet holes or other building damage from the shooting was observable.  Schissel was inspecting the building for damage  Friday morning.

Crime tape had been removed from the scene and placed in a Dumpster also at the rear of the building.

Schissel and neighbor Sue Vining both confirmed the apparent shooting victim had a wife and two young children.  The apparent victim was a police officer and often kept to himself, they said.

Vining said she only really saw the apparent victim when the family moved in and that he was a fine neighbor.  Schissel said the only noise heard from the apartment was normal for a family with a toddler and an infant.

Schissel said he checked out the apparent victim for a criminal history before leasing the apartment unit, like he does with all applicants.

“I figured he was OK because the police hired him,” Schissel said.

Residents at the scene believed they saw the police officer was in handcuffs when taken by ambulance.

No additional information was available from the Division of Criminal Investigation as of 10 a.m. today.

A news release from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation says the officer was off-duty and under investigation when he was shot Thursday night.

The shooting happened as two DCI agents were interviewing the officer. The release says that following the interview, a struggle between the officer and at least one of the agents ensued, and one of the agents shot the officer.

The release says the officer was taken to a local hospital and is being treated for a non-life threatening injury.

At about 6:20 a.m. Friday, DCI officials were inside an apartment with an Ellenbecker listed as the resident on the post office box inside the building.

The Forest City Police Department has a Thaddeus Ellenbecker listed as a police officer.

The Forest City Police Department, the Iowa State Patrol and Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation were on the scene in Forest City Thursday night at an apartment complex where the shooting occurred.

Ellenbecker had reported a shooting at his rural Hancock County residence on July 23, 2009, a July 25, 2009 story on the Globe Gazette’s website said.

The DCI is involved in two other investigations in Forest City as the agency, the Iowa State Fire Marshal and the Forest City Police Department are investigating an Oct. 1 fire at the Forest City Police Station.

Law enforcement officials are also investigating an assault on an on-duty police officer reported on Sept. 26, according to Police Chief Dan Davis.

Davis has said it was not certain if the assault and the fire are related but law enforcement must investigate any possible connection.

Davis has declined to name the officer involved in the Sept. 26 assault, citing that the DCI is investigating the incident.

Mick Wright, Drew Peterson and two other people who said they are relatives of Wright were in an apartment at the rear of the complex when they heard a loud thud Thursday evening.

“It was still daylight out so we could see clearly,” Peterson said. “We all got up.”

Peterson and Wright looked out the apartment window that faces west and saw a white man holding a gun and dressed in a navy blazer and khaki pants walk out the back door, they said.

They said the handgun looked “silver and black.”

Later, they saw the same man sitting in the front seat of an apparent law enforcement vehicle, Peterson and Wright said.

When they saw the man with the gun, they called the two people in the hallway back to the apartment, Wright said.

When they were looking out the apartment window they also saw a woman in the back parking lot near the injured man on the ground, Wright and Peterson said. They said the woman was yelling for help.