The immigration enforcement officers involved in an operation that resulted in the shooting death of a man in Houston were not wearing body cameras at the time, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed Thursday. And the father of three who died was not the agents' intended target, according to the office of U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia.
A spokesperson for Garcia, the Houston Democrat whose district includes the predominantly Latino area where the shooting took place Tuesday morning, said she had spoken with David Venturella, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Venturella allegedly told Garcia that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot and killed on Tuesday by an ICE agent, was not the intended target of the operation.
"Another passenger had an administrative warrant and was the target," Joseph Guzman, a spokesperson for Garcia, told Houston Public Media.
The New York Times, citing information obtained from the Department of Homeland Security, reported Thursday that none of the people in Salgado Araujo's vehicle were initial targets of the federal agents.
Guzman said Garcia would disclose more from her conversation with ICE on Friday.
Representatives from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, did not immediately return a request for comment, nor have they identified the other three individuals in Salgado Araujo's vehicle at the time of their encounter with federal agents. One of them was Salgado Araujo's brother, according to his family, though he was also not the intended target of the operation, Guzman said.
Salgado Araujo is one of multiple people in Texas and across the U.S. to be fatally shot by ICE agents or die in ICE custody during the second term of President Donald Trump, whose administration has ramped-up immigration-related arrests and deportations. There was a nationwide surge in arrests during the weeks preceding Salgado Araujo's shooting death, according to the Associated Press.
An ICE spokesperson said Tuesday that an agent shot Salgado Araujo in self-defense after the man "weaponized his vehicle" and tried to run over the officer. His family has disputed this account, and they along with civil rights advocacy organizations and Democratic elected officials have called for an independent investigation into the fatal shooting.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said Thursday on Hello Houston that his office has initiated its own investigation, while acknowledging its access to evidence has been limited. The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General is investigating the shooting death, according to the FBI, which has said it's investigating a potential assault on a law enforcement officer.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire and the Houston Police Department said Thursday they do not have jurisdiction or legal authority to investigate the shooting, calling it a federal matter. Two local legal experts disagreed with that assertion in interviews with Houston Public Media.
The absence of body camera footage from the ICE agents involved in the shooting, who have not been identified by federal officials, figures to be a limiting factor in an investigation. A DHS spokesperson said they didn't have body cameras because of pauses in funding during recent shutdowns of the federal government, which the spokesperson specifically blamed on Democrats in Congress.
