PARKERSBURG, Iowa — Police have charged a 24-year-old former player in the fatal shooting of a prominent Iowa high school football coach.

Police say Mark Becker shot Aplington-Parkersburg High School football coach Ed Thomas several times at about 8 a.m. Wednesday in the school's weight room. Authorities say students were in the room when Thomas was shot, but no one else was injured.

Police say Becker was arrested shortly after the shooting. He is charged with first-degree murder and is being held in Butler County jail.

Thomas died at a Waterloo hospital.

The school is in Parkersburg, about 80 miles northeast of Des Moines.