ICE Shooting
An ICE officer shoots and wounds a Venezuelan delivery driver in Austin, prompting protests and a federal review.
Wilber Rafael Garces Perez was delivering food Sunday when an ICE officer shot him. The Venezuelan asylum seeker was wounded in Austin, his lawyer said.
Around 1 p.m. on the city's north side, Garces Perez, 28, took a bullet to the torso, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said at a news conference, the Guardian reported. The shooting followed a Texas Department of Public Safety request for ICE's help with a vehicle pursuit, NBC News reported. He was driving the car involved, a blue Toyota Corolla.
The Department of Homeland Security says he's in the country illegally, under a final removal order issued during the Biden administration. Austin City Council member Mike Siegel told a different story. The ICE officer rammed Garces Perez's car, he said. Then he got out and fired at least five times, CBS News reported. Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, his attorney, rejected the illegal-entry claim outright. Garces Perez arrived from Venezuela two years ago through a legal parole program, she said, and was working as a DoorDash driver when he was shot.
Garces Perez called his wife around 12:30 p.m., Lincoln-Goldfinch said. He was yelling in pain when the call cut off. Guards later removed her and his wife from the grounds of Dell Seton Medical Center, she said, and they heard nothing about his condition for hours. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson stepped in. Only then did a hospital administrator confirm he'd been released into ICE custody.
About a hundred protesters gathered at the scene Sunday, the Guardian reported. Some shouted at officers holding riot shields. Drivers honked in support. Homeland Security Investigations, a component of ICE, will lead the inquiry with help from the FBI, DHS said Monday, according to NPR. Watson wants Austin police involved too. He argues that would give the process independent oversight.
Shifting such investigations from the FBI to Homeland Security Investigations breaks from past practice, CBS News reported, since HSI sits inside ICE rather than outside it. U.S. Rep. Greg Casar demanded an independent investigation. He pointed to a Minneapolis shooting earlier this year in which, he said, video contradicted the agency's account.
"We can see the lies with our own eyes," Casar said. "We will demand truth, transparency and accountability."