First homicide victim in Sioux Falls in 2022 identified

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The first homicide victim of the year in South Dakota’s largest city has been identified as a local man.

According to police and family members, Tunis Sando Lomax, 36, was the victim who was fatally shot this weekend in Sioux Falls.

Police spokesman Sam Clemens said Monday no arrests have been made in Lomax’s death.

Clemens said officers responded to a report of a gunshot about 2 a.m. Saturday on the east side of the city.

Police found Lomax at the scene suffering from what they believed to be a single gunshot wound. He was taken to the hospital where he later died. Clemens said one shell casing was recovered.

At a vigil Sunday night in Sioux Falls, Lomax’s family remembered him as a loving and caring husband, father, brother and friend, KELO-TV reported.

“Everybody that’s been coming over, they always say the same thing. ‘Oh, he’s so good. He’s so nice.’ He’s always ready to help, always. He’s a very, very friendly person. All the people he come across, they like him. Whoever that is involved with this, we need justice,” the victim’s wife, Cynthia Lomax, said.

Now the family wants answers.

“We know that he’s not going to come back anymore in our life. We need justice,” the victim’s sister, Victoria Lomax Cole, said.