Earlier we wrote about a high-speed chase that happened in Sioux Center on March 18. This incident was an extremely close call. It doesn’t take much for something to have been slightly different to see where death could have easily resulted from this incident. The safety of the public and the community was at high risk.
The driver of the vehicle, Semon Lionardo Lopez Lopez, was taken to the hospital after the chase ended and then transferred to a Sioux Falls hospital.
As of March 26, The Iowa Standard was told it was believed Lopez Lopez was still in the hospital. A few days later, word around Sioux Center was the hospital released Lopez Lopez and nobody knew where he was.
When asked if the sheriff, county attorney or chief of police could confirm that Lopez Lopez was in custody, no answer was given. The incident is an “ongoing investigation” which means answers are difficult to come by.
The Iowa Standard has filed an open records request with the Sioux Center Police Department seeking more details about the incident.
Many questions remain.
Among them, why was he released from the hospital without law enforcement being notified? Why did it take three weeks for an arrest warrant to be issued? Is he in custody? If not, is law enforcement aware of his whereabouts? Where was he employed?
Who was the car he was driving registered to? Where is the car now? If Lopez Lopez isn’t found, who pays his medical bills? If Lopez Lopez isn’t found, who covers the home repairs?
According to the list of warrants online, Lopez Lopez was charged with OWI (1st), failure to maintain control, failure to obey stop sign/yield, eluding-injury, OWI, offense, no valid driver’s license, unsafe turn/fail to give signal, driving wrong side of 2-way highway, speeding and reckless driving.
According to the list of arrests, Lopez Lopez has not yet been arrested.
Hopefully, some of these questions are answered sooner rather than later. The public deserves to know exactly what happened in this situation and how.
And they should be assured it is being taken deadly serious because it was a potentially deadly situation.
