Salem man arraigned on 22 counts in shooting that left 1 dead and an officer injured
A 21-year-old Salem man was arraigned Monday in Polk County Court on 22 charges, including manslaughter and attempted murder, in connection with a late September shooting on Highway 22 that ended with one person dead and an officer and another bystander shot.
Jose Corral-Zavala appeared in court via phone from the Marion County Jail in Salem, where he is being held on a probation violation from a 2021 case in which he was found guilty of attempting to elude a police officer.
Corral-Zavala pleaded not guilty to all 22 charges in Polk County. A grand jury indictment includes eight counts of attempted murder, assault, reckless endangering, assaulting a public safety officer, attempting to elude a police officer, mischief and reckless endangerment.
Corral-Zavala is awaiting an Oct. 30 hearing in Marion County Court on his probation violation status.
"Our desire is to get him over here to Polk County as soon as possible," Deputy District Attorney Matthew Wilson said.
Corral-Zavala only spoke at the hearing in Dallas to acknowledge Judge Timothy Park asking if he was on the phone.
Park ordered Corral-Zavala held without bail.
A pre-trial conference on the 22-count Polk County case is scheduled for 9 a.m. Nov. 15, and Corral-Zavala's trial is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Dec. 12.
According to the probable cause statement in the case, in the early hours of Sept. 30 an Independence Police Department officer tried to pull Corral-Zavala over in a black BMW, but he sped away north on Highway 51 until running over a spike strip laid out by Polk County Sheriff's deputies.
Corral-Zavala kept going onto Highway 22 and went east about two miles until crashing the car.
He got out of the car and when deputies caught up with him, he fired a gun at them multiple times, then got into a minivan that had stopped on the side of the road. He forced the van to drive away, making it about a mile into West Salem before crashing into a house.
A 17-year-old girl in the van got out after it crashed and was taken to Salem Hospital with injuries, including a gunshot.
Corral-Zavala refused to surrender for several hours, and when he did, he was arrested. Police found the driver of the van, 18-year-old Ivan Ocegueda of Carlton, dead in the van.
Polk County Sheriff’s deputy Michael Smith, who had been shot in the ankle and treated at Salem Hospital and was placed on leave after the incident, was cleared by a grand jury on Friday.
Bill Poehler covers Marion and Polk County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Salem man arraigned on 22 counts in shooting on Highway 22
