A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and wounded a Venezuelan man on Sunday afternoon in Texas’s capital city, Austin, prompting demonstrations at the scene against the Trump administration’s hardline anti-immigration campaign.
The man, identified by relatives and his lawyer as 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, was taken to a hospital in Austin in a serious but stable condition, officials said, before being taken into custody. He was shot once in the torso on the city’s north side, Austin’s police chief, Lisa Davis, said at a news conference with the mayor and other city officials.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said it was leading an investigation into the officer involved in the shooting, with the help of the FBI.
Austin police officers were not involved in the operation or the shooting, which occurred after a traffic stop, Davis told reporters. The city’s police arrived on the scene after the shooting and could be seen on bystander video asking the federal officers what had happened and then rushing back to their squad car to get surgical gloves and a medical kit and administering first aid to the man. The federal officers could be heard saying they had called an ambulance, but they did not appear to attempt to give first aid.
Just off the intersection where Garcés Pérez was shot, Nedavia Bolaños followed her husband out of the couple’s ice-cream store after they heard gun shots. On the other side of the parking lot, below the highway overpass, they could see a blue Toyota sedan and a black SUV stopped, pointing in different directions, they told the Guardian.
Bolaños’ husband, who gave his name only as Carlos, rushed to the scene. Carlos said he asked the man if he was OK. He could see Garcés Pérez clutching his chest and looking drained and distressed.
Bolaños, who took footage on her phone, can be heard asking the federal agents: “Hey, guys, why’d you do that to him?”
The ICE officer is standing next to the open car door, in which there is a visible dent.
Bolaños said she was shocked to see the federal officers, who were wearing tactical vests and masks, standing by, not responding to her or her husband’s questions.
In her 40 years in the US, she said: “I’ve never seen this kind of stuff. Thank God I’m a citizen or I’d be living with this anguish, in a nightmare.”
An ICE officer puts handcuffs on the man and gets him out of the car, sitting him on the ground with his hands behind his back. Then Austin police can be seen in the video cutting off the man’s shirt. At least one bright red bullet wound can be seen between his shoulder blades, and blood below.
Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, Garcés Pérez’s lawyer, said her client had arrived in the US two years ago from Venezuela. He was making a delivery for DoorDash when he encountered ICE and was shot, she said.
Kirk Watson, Austin’s Democratic mayor, said at the press conference later that he wanted the city’s police department to be involved in the investigation so it can provide “clear, third-party eyes” in the process. Watson said he did not think it would be appropriate for ICE to conduct an investigation on its own.
Austin residents have “a right to feel safe in their city”, Watson said. A proper investigation would only enhance credibility, he added.
A large law enforcement presence was at the scene, along with a crowd of about a hundred protesters. Some demonstrators cursed at police officers holding riot shields, while others yelled out as passing cars honked in support of the protest. One man held a sign saying “Nobody is safe” and on the other side, “ICE Nazi”.
Asked if Austin authorities knew where the involved federal agent was, given that agents have left states after previous shootings nationwide, the mayor said: “We do not know that. But my hope would be that, an agent that’s involved in an officer-involved shooting would not leave the city. Certainly not leave the state.”
Greg Casar, a Democratic congressman representing parts of Austin, called for transparency as the shooting is investigated.
“It is awful that this horror has come to our doorstep,” Casar told reporters. “For Austin to be safe, ICE should end its surge here.”
Lincoln-Goldfinch said that she took Garcés Pérez’s wife to the downtown Austin hospital where they believed Garcés Pérez was taken, but they were turned away. Later, hospital staff called to say ICE had taken Garcés Pérez out of the hospital about 4.30pm local time.
As of 10pm on Sunday night she said neither she nor Garcés Pérez’s family had heard from him and they were unsure what immigration detention center he might have been taken to.
“I’m afraid he’s not stable. I’m afraid he’s not receiving medical care, and I’m afraid they’re going to try to deport him to make this go away,” she said.
The shooting came as ICE has surged enforcement this summer, producing more than 50,000 arrests a month for the first time in its history in July and August.
In July, an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo of Houston, after federal agents driving unmarked vehicles pursued him while he was taking his construction crew to a job site.
Also in July, Johan Sebastián DuránGuerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian man, was shot by an ICE officer in Maine. The officer is an army veteran who struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets, several of his close relatives told the Associated Press.
The administration’s enforcement efforts were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
