SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Law enforcement officers fatally shot a man who fled a traffic stop in Sioux Falls and fired a gun at a police officer and a sheriff’s deputy, the city’s police chief said Wednesday.
Chief Jon Thum said at a briefing that law enforcement stopped a car with four occupants in the parking lot of a Burger King restaurant about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday because some were wanted and on parole.
Three of the four individuals — a woman and three men — ran from the vehicle and the fourth drove away, officials said.
One of the men fired at officers as he tried to flee and was shot, Thum said. The man, who has not been identified, was pronounced dead at a hospital.
“We came very close to losing an officer yesterday, possibly more than one,” said Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead.
Police said they have arrested two who were in the vehicle. The person who drove away from the scene remains at large, the chief said.
The drive-thru restaurant was busy, but no bystanders or officers were injured, Thum said.
“These people are trying to kill our officers, and that’s something we are very concerned about,” he said.
The police officer and sheriff’s deputy who fired their weapons are on administrative leave as the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation works the case.
Witnesses said they heard about 10 to 12 gunshots. Investigators cordoned off the area around the restaurant with yellow police tape. Patrons waited in their vehicles to be cleared from the scene.
Steven Carrillo, who was inside the Burger King with his partner and three children and more than a dozen other customers, said his family hid in the bathroom when the gunfire rang out.
“We were in there for like an hour,” he said. “We didn’t even eat afterward.”
“I was mostly worried about my kids,” Carrillo said, shaking his head. His children range in age from 4 to 9 years old.
It’s the fifth police shooting in the city since the end of March, and the seventh since October 2021. Four of those seven have been fatal, according to Argus Leader.