Joseph Standing Bear, a 29-year-old Native American man, was found dead on the morning of August 20, 2022, inside an apartment in the 100 block of Surfwood Drive in Rapid City, South Dakota, after police were called to the scene around 7:30 a.m. Officers arriving at the apartment located two adult men inside, both already deceased from gunshot wounds, and the killings were treated as a double homicide that immediately rattled the city and drew an “all hands on deck” response from
investigators working alongside other agencies.
In the days that followed, investigators began tying the Surfwood Drive killings into a broader burst of violence that week, building a timeline that started with an earlier shooting on August 17 in which a juvenile male suffered a serious but non-life-threatening gunshot wound. As detectives compared reports, leads, and witness accounts, police said the cases appeared connected and suggested there could be gang-related elements, a detail that added urgency because of concerns that people linked to the shootings might be in danger themselves—or might strike again.
As the search intensified, Rapid City Police publicly identified three people as persons of interest they were trying to locate: Robert Yellowbird of Sioux Falls, Chase Quick Bear of Rapid City, and Rochelle Janis of Rapid City. Police warned the public that at least one of the people they were seeking was believed to be armed and should not be approached, and they continued executing search warrants and tracking tips as the homicide investigation widened.
Arrests and detentions began to stack up as investigators closed in on those they believed were involved. Reporting later described Benita Cisneros as being connected to the case, including as the driver of a Ford Taurus X investigators were trying to locate in connection with the Surfwood Drive homicides, and authorities worked to bring in additional people they believed had roles in the violence surrounding the deaths.
Even after early arrests, the case kept unfolding over many months, with investigators still hunting at least one suspect they said had slipped away. That long search ended in March 2024, when authorities announced that Dillon Wilson had been arrested in Sioux Falls after being sought for more than a year and a half; he was taken into custody by a fugitive task force and police on warrants for two counts of first-degree murder. In that same reporting, Wilson was described as the fifth person arrested in connection with the deaths, while the others were described as already in custody awaiting trial.
