A state agency is investigating an incident that left a Sioux City man dead after an officer-involved shooting.
The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation in a Tuesday news release announced officials are investigating the shooting that involved two Sioux City Police Department officers.
According to the release, driver Salvador Perez-Garcia rammed a patrol vehicle head-on with his pick-up truck in the parking garage of the Sioux City Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
Perez-Garcia then reportedly rammed another patrol vehicle, and got out swinging a chain with a metal object on the end of it. Officers said they tried to defuse the situation, but Perez-Garcia didn’t comply with commands and kept coming toward them with the chain.
They fired their guns, and Perez-Garcia, 55, died at the scene.
Additionally, the Iowa Legislature began its 2024 legislative session on Monday, and on Tuesday evening, Gov. Kim Reynolds delivered her Condition of the State address.
Reynolds said key pursuits for the four months ahead in the Legislature will be to raise teacher pay, cut the income taxes paid by Iowans, and make changes to the Area Education Agencies system that regionally provide special services to individual school districts.
Her proposal would raise teacher starting salaries to $50,000, plus boost it to a minimum of $62,000 for those who have 12 years of service.
Regarding the state income tax, as 2024 began the top tax rate dropped to 5.7 percent, and it will switch to a flat tax regardless of income level in 2026. Reynolds proposes moving up the arrival of the flat income tax by two years to later this year, and dropping the rate from 3.9 percent up 3.65 percent.
Even with those proposed deeper cuts, Reynolds asserted the state budget would still have a $1 billion dollar surplus in the next fiscal year. Republicans applauded her tax proposals as they were announced, and after the Condition of the State address, Senate Minority Leader Pam Jochum said Democrats aim to work where they can in a bipartisan way on the proposals.
“We need to see the actual bills, whether it is on tax policy, whether it is on AEAs, whether it is on raising teacher salaries, the devil is in the details,” Jochum said.
Republicans control all three phases of the lawmaking channels, holding the governorship and both chambers of the Legislature, so they can set the agenda for which bills get aired.
Reynolds began her speech by referencing the shooting last week that killed an 11-year-old boy and wounded seven others. The governor said the Perry High School principal positioned himself to help other students, and is now recovering from several gunshot wounds. She also thanked the many law enforcement officers who quickly entered the school.
Additionally, Woodbury County Auditor Pat Gill announced on Wednesday he will run for re-election this year.
Gill told Siouxland Public Media News that it is important to serve another term "to protect the integrity of local elections" amid "attack" by some.
Gill, a Democrat, was first elected as the county auditor in 1996, and this is his 28th year in the post. If he wins in November, he would serve an eighth term that runs through 2028.
Candidates running for county, state and federal office can officially file papers over three weeks in March to get on the ballot.
