Woodbury County Attorney James Loomis has cleared two Sioux City police officers in the fatal shooting of a man in the parking ramp of the Hard Rock Casino on January 8th.
Loomis says 55-year-old Salvador Perez-Garcia of Sioux City wanted a confrontation with officers. “His violent aggression was planned and targeted at law enforcement. His attack on officers with the Sioux City Police Department placed those officers lives in immediate danger. The use of deadly force was justified to put an end to that immediate danger,” he says. Loomis says Loomis says Perez-Garcia had been banned from the casino in June of 2023 because of thefts.
Loomis says he was seen smoking was believed to be meth on a casino security camera before driving to the police station and then returning to the parking garage. He then rammed the car of an officer who was there on an unrelated matter. “The collision was violent enough to deploy the airbags of the officers patrol car and Mr. Perez Garcia’s pickup truck. The collision disabled the officers patrol car and shoved it into a concrete wall the officer was slightly injured and trapped inside his patrol car,” he says. Loomis says Perez-Garcia rammed a second patrol car, and then came at officers with a chain that had a metal object on the end. “Mr. Perez Garcia attacked one officer by swinging his weapon wildly at him. The officer retreated. Another officer attempted to go hands on with Mr. Perez-Garcia to get him into custody, but Mr. Perez-Garcia attacked him with his weapon as well, causing him to retreat,” Loomis says. “The two officers who were attacked with the weapon responded by firing their handguns.”
Officers fired eleven rounds, and Perez-Garcia died at the scene. Police Chief Rex Mueller says the two officers have returned to duty. “It can’t be understated how difficult it is for officers to have to deal with this,” he says. “Nobody wants to enter a law enforcement career and have to take somebody else’s life. But you know, these officers did exactly what they were trained to do. And there’s a recovery process and we are watching out for them and caring for them, but I can’t say it’s an easy process.”
Mueller and Loomis both extended their condolences to Perez-Garcia’s family.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)