By Mason Dockter
Sioux City Journal, Iowa
SIOUX CITY — Woodbury County Attorney James Loomis said Tuesday that the fatal police shooting in January of Salvador Perez-Garcia in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino parking ramp was justified, and that criminal charges are not warranted against the two officers who fired shots.
“His violent aggression was planned, and targeted, at law enforcement,” Loomis said at a press conference at the Sioux City Police Department headquarters. “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.”
Sioux City Police Chief Rex Mueller said that 11 rounds were fired at Perez-Garcia, and nine struck him during the incident in the early hours Jan. 8. Mueller described Perez-Garcia as a man with “a documented contempt for law enforcement.” Perez-Garcia, 56, of Sioux City, was pronounced dead on the scene; an autopsy found he died of gunshot wounds.
“Make no mistake: This was a deliberate and premeditated ambush on officers,” Mueller said.
The officers involved have since returned to duty, Mueller said. The police department has declined to identify any of the officers who responded that night.
The following is Loomis’ description of the incident, corroborated by video footage provided by the department:
Shortly after 1 a.m. Jan. 8 , Perez-Garcia drove his white 2002 Ford F-150 pickup into the Hard Rock parking garage, and parked on the second level. Perez-Garcia had been banned from the Hard Rock in June 2023 “for repeated thefts,” Loomis said, but had trespassed repeatedly since that time.
Click below to see full video.
He was seen on surveillance footage smoking a cigarette and smoking from a glass pipe; Loomis said he was believed to have been smoking meth. In video footage shared by the police department, he appears to be speaking directly to a surveillance camera.
Perez-Garcia left, returning at 2:42 a.m. At 3 a.m., he drove again to the second level of the parking garage “and began using his pickup truck to repeatedly hit the glass doors the elevator entrance.” He drove slowly and did little if any damage.
At 3:01 a.m., Perez-Garcia went to the third level of the parking garage, then drove up and down the ramp. At 3:41 a.m., a Sioux City Police officer drove into the parking garage and parked on the second level. The officer was conducting surveillance unrelated to Perez-Garcia, Loomis said. Perez-Garcia remained on the third level. The officer, Loomis said, was unaware of Perez-Garcia’s presence.
At around 3:52 a.m., Perez-Garcia began throwing papers out the windows of his truck. The papers, in Spanish, “referenced how the police are ‘corrupt,’ and how the casino is ‘culpable,’” Loomis said. On the steering wheel of his truck was written, “Police are corrupt.”
At 3:56 a.m., Perez-Garcia drove down to the second level, accelerated, and rammed into the passenger front corner of the officer’s patrol car. “The collision was violent enough to deploy the airbags of the officer’s patrol car, and Mr. Perez-Garcia’s pickup truck,” Loomis said. The patrol car was left disabled and shoved into a concrete wall; the officer was slightly injured, and stuck in the patrol car.
“I’ve got a vehicle just rammed into me! Second story of the Hard Rock!” the officer can be heard shouting into his radio, in footage of the incident.
Perez-Garcia can be seen in the video footage unbuckling his seatbelt, opening his door, backing up slightly, then driving forward again into the patrol car. The officer pointed his gun at Perez-Garcia but didn’t fire, Loomis said. Perez-Garcia backed up and drove his damaged truck down the ramp.
At 3:57 a.m., additional officers arrived at the parking ramp. Perez-Garcia collided head-on with one of the officers’ patrol cars. Officers exited their patrol cars, and Perez-Garcia left his truck, armed with a weapon.
This weapon, apparently homemade, reportedly consisted of a metal handle with an attached chain and a metal object at the end of the chain; the weapon was described by the police department as “similar to a Medieval flail.” Perez-Garcia was also wearing body armor, according to the police department’s account of the incident.
“An officer commanded Mr. Perez-Garcia to ‘Get on the ground,’ ‘Drop it,’ ‘Drop it right now,’ and ‘Back up,’” Loomis said. “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. The two officers who were attacked with the weapon responded by firing their handguns. Once Mr. Perez was on the ground, the weapon was thrown to the side, and officers immediately rendered aid to Mr. Perez-Garcia.”
The final confrontation transpired over less than 17 seconds, Loomis and Mueller said.
“The night of the shooting he was actively seeking the attention of law enforcement to force a confrontation,” Mueller said of Perez-Garcia. “The officers involved in this incident had little to no time to react to an immediate threat the suspect in this matter posed to them.”
Perez-Garcia had a police record; he was involved in incident on Oct. 25, 2022, in which he “menaced officers with what appeared to be a handgun,” according to a Sioux City Police account of that event. After a brief standoff involving SWAT and crisis negotiators, he surrendered. He pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment in that case.
The Iowa Attorney General’s Office will release its findings once their review of the case is finished, Loomis said. Loomis said he did not know when that will be.
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