Man shot, wounded by off-duty Kettering police officer pleads guilty to robbery

An off-duty officer from the Kettering Police Department who shot and wounded Perez Mendez in October 2023 in a backyard behind Meijer is not facing charges after a Montgomery County grand jury in January ignored the case and declined to indict the officer.

Citing Marsy’s Law, Kettering police are not naming the off-duty officer who shot Perez Mendez. It’s also not clear why the off-duty officer, who had been paid leave during the investigation, responded to the incident.

Kettering police are among several across the state using the new law expanding victims’ rights in Ohio to indefinitely withhold from the public the identities of police officers who shoot suspects.

The city of Kettering won’t release records identifying two of its officers who shot and wounded suspects last year. City officials said the officers are victims under Marsy’s Law and last year also said the names were withheld under a different section of Ohio law because the officers were “uncharged suspects.”

Police say Perez Mendez had a handgun at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 8, 2023, when he entered La Tapatia — a Mexican grocery store at 4941 Burkhardt Road in Riverside — and robbed the store before firing one shot while behind the sales counter, according to an affidavit.

Perez Mendez then approached a man and told him to hand over his money and cellphone. He ordered the the man to drive him in the man’s pickup truck to Meijer at 4075 Wilmington Pike in Kettering to withdraw all the money from his bank account at the ATM inside the store, the document stated.

Inside the pickup in the Meijer parking lot, Perez Mendez reportedly held up the man’s wallet after he looked at the ID.

“Defendant told the victim he knew who he was and he knows where he lives and if he didn’t get the money or called police, defendant would kill his family,” the affidavit stated.

Kettering police were called around 2 p.m. Oct. 8 to the Meijer store after the man approached employees for help.

“I have a customer here that said he was robbed out in our parking lot at gunpoint,” the store manager told police dispatch.

When officers pulled into the Meijer area, Perez Mendez was on foot in the Meijer lot. Soon after, one officer reported spotting him on Tangent Drive in the neighborhood behind the Meijer store, toward East David Road.

The off-duty officer found him behind a house in the 4400 block of Tangent Drive. The woman who lives there called 911 to say the suspect was in her backyard.

Investigators said Perez Mendez pointed a gun at the off-duty officer, who then fired at him.

“They’re shooting,” the woman told a dispatcher. “Bullets are flying.”

A “shots fired” call then went out across police radios after an officer reported hearing three gunshots.

The woman caller was standing in front of her house “on the phone and waving frantically” at the officers before yelling they were in her backyard, according to a report.

“They have him. All the police are here,” the woman told the dispatcher.

Perez Mendez was on the ground after the shooting but got to his knees and was not obeying police orders, the report stated.

While keeping guns pointed, officers secured Perez Mendez’s weapon. He was groaning and holding his right side where he had been shot, and officers “began administering first aid to the suspect by applying pressure to his wound,” according to the report.

Perez Mendez’s injuries were described as serious but not life-threatening.

Police then took a statement from the victim, who was waiting inside Meijer, according to the report.

Kettering Police Chief Chip Protsman called in the regional Tactical Crime Suppression Unit to investigate the officer-involved shooting. Kettering police are investigating the abduction in Riverside and robbery in Kettering.

Perez Mendez is held on $500,000 bail in the Montgomery County Jail, where also is held on an immigration holder, online records show.

Staff Writer Lynn Hulsey contributed to this report.