Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis said Monday he would ask commissioners court to fund the district attorney’s independent investigation into the fatal shooting of a Houston man by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer last week.
Ellis did not provide details regarding how much funding he would ask the county government to provide, but said he and his office were exploring options.
"It would be a guess at this point,”Ellis said at a news conference Monday. “Wherever it leads us, whatever it costs — within reason — it's important enough for us to do it. I know we have a [budget] shortfall, but you always have to prioritize."
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old father of three, was shot last Tuesday morning during what ICE has called a “targeted enforcement operation" in Houston's East End, a predominantly Latino neighborhood. He was traveling to work with three other men in his car. In a statement toHouston Public Media, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not specify whether any of the people in the vehicle were intended targets, saying one of the individuals in the van “resembled the target.”
An ICE spokesperson said during the stop, Salgado Araujo was attempting to evade arrest and allegedly rammed his van into an ICE vehicle, causing an ICE agent to fire his weapon in self-defense. Salgado Araujo's family and the attorney representing two of the three other men in the vehicle dispute that claim.The ICE agents involved were not wearing body cameras.
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 Republican President Donald Trump, whose administration has ramped-up immigration-related arrests and deportations. On Monday, an ICE agent shot and killed a motorist in Maine, according to officials there.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, who like Ellis is a Democrat, announced last week that his office would be conducting an independent investigation into the shooting in Houston after not being invited to join the federal investigation. Teare acknowledged he had limited access to evidence in the case.
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The Office of Inspector General for DHS is leading the federal investigation into the shooting death of Salgado Araujo, according to the FBI, which is investigating a potential assault on a law enforcement officer.
Teare, who joined Ellis at Monday’s news conference, said he did not yet know what additional resources would be required as his office conducts its own investigation.
"The last thing that I ever want to do as someone who cares about the fiscal health of this entire county is go ask for something that I quite frankly couldn't use," Teare said. "I want to be very detailed when we ask, but in the general sense, it would be for additional prosecutors and investigators and things like that."
A spokesperson for Harris County Commissioner Lesley Briones, whose precinct includes the area where the shooting occurred, said in a statement her office supports funding the DA's investigation.
"After a series of inconsistent statements and a lack of transparency from the federal government, we are taking action locally," Briones’ spokesperson said. "The Harris County District Attorney's Office is best equipped to lead an independent investigation into the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, and I am proud to support dedicated funding for this investigation."
County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who presides over the five-member commissioners court, also expressed support for additional funding but called local investigations into ICE incidents a "tall order."
"For one, we depend entirely on the federal government's willingness to share information," Hidalgo said in a statement. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't do everything we can to find answers. All of us rallying around the district attorney's investigation is the best way to maximize our chances of success."
A spokesperson for Commissioner Adrian Garcia told Houston Public Media he is committed to making sure the DA's investigation has the resources necessary to complete it.
Commissioner Tom Ramsey, the lone Republican on the commissioners court, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Ellis said commissioners are going through the budgeting process for the 2027 fiscal year and will convene July 21 for a business court meeting.County budgeters are projecting a $129 million shortfall, according to a recent presentation to commissioners court. The projected deficit was exacerbated by pay raises last year for county law enforcement and rising inflationary costs, commissioners said.
Teare provided few details Monday about what evidence had been independently collected so far, also leaving the door open to potential legal action if evidence is withheld by the federal government.
"We are still trying to get access to a number of key pieces of evidence. What those pieces are, I'm not going to go into," Teare said. "At some point, it becomes a place where we stop asking, and we start asking district court judges and state court and federal court to grant us access."
Last week, Teare said he was in contact with the attorney for Hennepin County, Minnesota, where local prosecutors have been investigating the fatal ICE shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti — both U.S. Citizens — earlier this year. On Monday, Minnesota prosecutors announced they hadobtained long-withheld evidence from the federal government in the shootings, which both occurred in January.
"At the end of this, however long it takes, and in all likelihood, this will take many, many months, potentially years, before we finally get the answers that we all need, but we will not rest," Teare said. "Certainly it's the collaboration and cooperation of the federal government that's going to either shrink or lengthen the time that we are going to be investigating before we make a decision and present this to a grand jury."
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