Lee County investigating deputy shooting

DIME BOX, Texas (KXAN) — The Lee County sheriff told KXAN one of his deputies was shot and wounded during a shootout with a man in Dime Box Tuesday night. The suspect is dead.

The deputy, who has been with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office for about a decade, was taken by air to an Austin hospital for treatment and surgery, Sheriff Casey Goetz said.

Goetz told KXAN’s Candy Rodriguez, however, the deputy sustained “more damage than first thought.”

Deputies were serving a warrant on a man, Raul Vega Perez. They received a call he was in the area, Goetz said, so his office responded to a home in the 1000 block of Stephen F Austin Ave. around 9:45 p.m.

When deputies went to arrest Perez, gunfire was exchanged. Perez was shot and killed during the shootout.

According to a Facebook post, the sheriff’s office said Perez had a warrant out for failure to appear/sexual assault of a child. At the time, the office said it believed he was armed and dangerous.

Online court records show Perez was convicted of several crimes in the 1970s and 80s:

• December 1975: Aggravated sexual assault of a child, five-year sentence
• April 1976: Second-degree rape in Bexar County, five-year sentence
• December 1981: First-degree murder in Bexar County, 15-year sentence
• December 1981: Ordered to report as a sex offender

Texas Rangers are currently investigating the case, and the Texas Department of Public Safety responded to the scene.

Goetz said this is the first deputy shooting in the county since he became sheriff in January 2021.

“In Lee County, dynamics are changing. Society is changing,” he said.

Dime Box is 20 miles northeast of Giddings.

KXAN has a crew in Dime Box and will update the story on KXAN.com and KXAN News Today.