Violence against police is becoming more common in Rapid City

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - A Rapid City police officer responded to a disturbance at the Cornerstone Mission last weekend and ended his night in the emergency room.

A man at the shelter had reportedly punched a staff member multiple times, and when the officer tried to ease tensions, the man strangled him. The officer was able to fend off his assailant, but not without sustaining serious injuries to his neck and hands, according to a release from the Pennington County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Police arrested 30-year-old Richard Ingalls for assault. Ingalls has three prior assault arrests, one as recent as 2023.

Sadly, this is not the first time that a police officer in West River’s biggest city has feared for his life in the line of duty. A crime report by the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office stated that in 2022, 126 Rapid City police officers were assaulted. That’s about one every three days and more than double the 56 reported assault reports on Sioux Falls police in the same year.

“I think that what happened this weekend highlights a larger issue in our community,” said Olivia Siglin, a deputy state’s attorney and liaison for law enforcement in Pennington County. “The South Dakota attorney general’s office releases crime statistics each year, which shows that police in Rapid City and in Pennington County are assaulted at a much higher rate than in any other jurisdiction in South Dakota.”

This alarming trend has Siglin’s attention, and she has represented other police officers in the area who were attacked on the job. She mentioned that being assaulted is not part of a police officer’s job description and that she hopes that more police interactions can be resolved peacefully.

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