Sister of man charged with killing officer says he didn’t do it on purpose

He didn’t do it on purpose!

That’s what the sister of the man accused of intentionally hitting and killing El Paso motorcycle officer David Ortiz tells ABC-7.

Forty-five year-old John Paul Perry is charged with capital murder and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. He remains in separation at the El Paso County Jail in Downtown El Paso.

Perry’s sister, Glenda Gallegos, spoke only to ABC-7. Gallegos did not want her face on camera, but Perry’s younger sister told ABC-7, he told her, it was an accident.

“They’re making him look like a monster and he’s not a monster,” Gallegos said, pointing out her brother doesn’t understand why police are now saying he struck and killed Ortiz intentionally while driving a Kia Optima on March 10, leading to capital murder charges against him. “He’s a human being and he made a mistake.”

Gallegos said Perry told her he fell asleep at the wheel, causing the mid-afternoon crash.

“He said he dozed off, that he was sorry,” she said. “And he said, ‘Mija, I’m sorry. I fell asleep. I dozed off.”

Gallegos said her brother was in the Barrio Azteca gang at one point, but no longer is. She also claimed he wasn”t running from police when he was captured in Merkel, Texas, last week.

“He wasn’t running from nobody,” Gallegos said. “He knew he did wrong, but it was an accident. He didn’t do it on purpose.”

She also said Perry did not take the Kia Optima, owned by another sister, without permission.

“It was loaned to him,” she said. “The reason my sister said it was stolen was because the detectives scared her.”

She said her brother has shown remorse for officer Ortiz’s death, saying it should have been him and not ortiz who died.

“I’m sorry for the family of Officer Ortiz,” Gallegos said through tears. “My heart goes out to them, but he’s not a monster, it was an accident and he has to pay for it being an accident. He knows that.”

Asked if she had anything else to say to Ortiz’s family, she replied crying: “I’m really sorry. He looked like a good man and my brother didn’t know him. They are saying my brother knew him, but my brother didn’t know him.

Gallegos told ABC-7 why she believes police think her brother killed Officer Ortiz intentionally. Police indicated information from the Merkel and Abilene police departments led them to that conclusion. She says that information is coming from another family member who allegedly told police Perry confessed to him that he did it on purpose.

El Paso Police had no comment on Gallego’s comments.