DES MOINES—In a report issued today, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office has concluded that the January 8, 2024 fatal shooting of Salvador Perez-Garcia by Sioux City Police Department officers was legally justified.

The Attorney General’s conclusion was based on a review and investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. The investigation found that Perez-Garcia first appeared at the Sioux City Hard Rock Hotel & Casino parking garage at 1:06 a.m., where, in an attempt to draw the attention of law enforcement, he positioned himself directly in front of a security camera and smoked what looked to be methamphetamine from a glass pipe. He then left the garage and drove to the Sioux City Police Department Headquarters, where no law enforcement officers were found. He immediately returned to the garage.

Shortly afterward, Perez-Garcia accelerated his pickup truck down a ramp to ram into the side of a Sioux City police officer’s parked cruiser. The officer was trapped against the wall and immediately radioed for help before Perez-Garcia, again, crashed into the cruiser. While attempting to leave the garage, Perez-Garcia then crashed his truck head-on into the cruiser of one of the two Sioux City police officers who responded to the call for help. Perez-Garcia got out of his truck and swung a homemade chained weapon at the officers several times. After he refused repeated commands to drop his weapon, the two officers opened fire, and fatally shot Perez-Garcia at 3:57 a.m.

The officers, who immediately attempted to render medical aid after the shooting, discovered that Perez-Garcia wore makeshift body armor. He had also thrown from his truck papers on which he had written in Spanish that “police are corrupt.” Those facts, along with Perez-Garcia’s earlier attempts to draw law-enforcement's attention and hunt for officers at the police department, confirmed that Perez-Garcia posed a deliberate and immediate threat to the lives of the officers and everyone in the surrounding area.

The report is issued under the Attorney General’s independent authority under Iowa Code section 13.12 to investigate or prosecute conduct of law enforcement that results in death.

A copy of the report is available here.

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For More Information:

Alyssa Brouillet | Communications Director

(515) 823-9112

alyssa.brouillet@ag.iowa.gov