Attorney says detainees witnessed ICE officer shoot Houston driver through passenger window

Three men inside a van who witnessed the fatal shooting of the driver, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, by an immigration officer in Houston said the Mexican man was shot through a passenger window and that the officer was never threatened, a lawyer who has spoken with them said Friday. 

“They confirmed that at no point was an ICE agent directly in front of the vehicle,” attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra said during a news conference. “They also confirmed the shots came from the side, not from the front.”

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has released no evidence to support the officer’s story that Salgado Araujo ignored their commands and rammed into an ICE vehicle with his white van on Tuesday, or that the officer fired in self-defense. DHS said in a statement Thursday that ICE officers were looking for a different person when they stopped Salgado Araujo’s vehicle.

Texas Rep. Sylvia Garcia, whose district includes the Houston neighborhood where the shooting occurred, has said the acting director of ICE told her officers thought someone in the van, but not Salgado Araujo, had a final order of removal but did not share a name.

“After receiving a credible tip from our law enforcement partners, our officers conducted surveillance on a target’s address. Weeks prior to the incident, they noted two white vans at the property,” DHS said in its Thursday statement. “On July 7, officers were almost at the target’s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop.” 

DHS initially said Tuesday that ICE officers were targeting Salgado Araujo because he was living in the country without legal permission. 

The department alleged he was shot after he ignored “multiple verbal commands” and attempted to ram an officer who fired his weapon in self-defense. Houston firefighters said Salgado Araujo was struck in the abdomen, and then his car hit an ICE vehicle.

He was taken to the hospital but died of his injuries, according to DHS.

The officers were not wearing body cameras, and neither ICE nor DHS has released photos, videos or other evidence from the scene. DHS has said officers in that field office were not yet equipped with body cameras “due to back-to-back Democrat shutdowns.”

Salgado Araujo was a 52-year-old homebuilder who was shot and killed as he was driving his crew to a construction site. His family said he had lived in the U.S. for more than 35 years, had no criminal record and was close to finishing the long process of obtaining legal status when he was killed.

ICE detained the other three men in the van and they all told a lawyer that no officer was in front of the van or even in danger.

“After speaking with these men, I have no doubt that what they’re saying is the truth. I know that these agents — the agency — is going to try to cover it up,” Balderas-Ibarra said.

Images of the van after the shooting appear to show no damage, he said.

ICE has not released the names of the detained men, but family members said they have been able to briefly talk with them. Salgado Araujo’s brother was among those arrested.

Garcia said at the same news conference it was not surprising that Salgado Araujo drove off when ICE tried to stop his vehicle, given that their vehicles were unmarked and had no lights.

“What would you do if you were being followed by someone and the cars were unmarked?” Garcia said.

Salgado Araujo was at least the eighth person to die during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign. No immigration officers have been charged in the killings, and video footage in several previous shootings has contradicted the accounts of federal officers.

The detained men claim ICE is pressuring them to self-deport

ICE is pressuring the men to self-deport, which would make it harder for them to share their version of events with investigators or others, said Juana Degollado, who said her stepfather, Daniel Tirado Pantoja, is among the detained men. She said he has no legal permission to live in the U.S. but has no criminal record.

“It is extremely important that we preserve the integrity of this investigation,” Balderas-Ibarra said. “That will all be out the window if they are deported.”

Balderas-Ibarra said the main goal is to secure the men’s release from ICE custody, but he’s concerned the men will be pressured into signing documents that will have them deported.

An ICE spokesperson told CBS News in a statement that “it is categorically false we would pressure someone to self-deport.”

DHS said Thursday that officers investigating a tip weeks earlier saw two white vans at the address of a target. While heading to that address on Tuesday, officers saw a white van and someone inside who resembled the person they were looking for, the department said in a statement. 

“No one in that van had warrants or any legal problem,” Degollado told The Associated Press in a text message.

DHS won’t release officer’s name or other information

DHS said it will not release the officer’s name because they could face threats and violence and their family could be at risk.

DHS also has not responded to requests for other information, including how long the officer has worked for ICE or whether anyone involved in the shooting is on administrative leave.

Unlike some previous deaths involving federal immigration officers, few photos or videos surrounding the shooting have emerged publicly in the days since Salgado Araujo’s death.

The League of United Latin American Citizens offered a $5,000 reward for video or other evidence, but the positions of the vehicles mean surveillance cameras in the area were blocked from recording the shooting, CEO Juan Proaño said.

Local prosecutors are talking to witnesses

Local prosecutors were not invited into the investigation by federal officials but have spent the past three days in the Houston neighborhood looking for surveillance footage and talking to witnesses, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said.

Teare said anyone with video or other information must share it with his office so the truth about the shooting can be determined.

“We will go to the ends of the Earth to collect all the evidence, so that we can eventually let the public know what happened,” Teare said.

The FBI is tightly controlling the evidence in the case, but Houston Mayor John Whitmire said he wants a local independent investigation and the police chief will meet with federal investigators next week to see what can be done.

“We recognize that it is a federal police agency that was out of control Tuesday morning,” Whitmire said.

Houston police do not work with ICE and the mayor said he found out about the shooting from the media.

Salgado Araujo’s family said they found out he was dead through the ICE statement instead of directly from the agency. Garcia said officers kept his belongings and sent him to the hospital where he died without including his name.