A man was fatally shot by an US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent during an immigration enforcement operation in Houston on Tuesday, after authorities said he attempted to evade arrest and drove his vehicle towards officers. The incident, which comes amid an intensified federal crackdown on migrants, is now under FBI investigation and has triggered calls for an independent inquiry.
The deceased was identified by ICE as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, whom the agency described as a Mexican national and an “illegal alien”.
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According to ICE, Salgado attempted to flee during a targeted enforcement operation, ramming an ICE vehicle, ignoring repeated verbal commands and using his vehicle in an attempt to run over an officer.
The agency said the confrontation resulted in “our officer firing his weapon in self-defence”, adding that Salgado was taken to hospital, where he later died from his injuries.
Family disputes circumstances
Speaking to Spanish-language television station Telemundo Houston, Ronaldo Salgado, who identified himself as the victim’s son, said his father was looking for workers for hire in the area when he was shot.
Surveillance footage from a nearby business, reviewed by news agency Reuters, showed a person lying beside a white van surrounded by officers in what appeared to be the aftermath of the shooting.
A spokesperson for the Houston Fire Department, Rustin Rawlings, said firefighters responding to the scene found a man with a gunshot wound to the abdomen receiving cardiopulmonary resuscitation before he was transported to hospital.
Incident follows previous disputed ICE shootings
The Houston shooting comes after several incidents over the past year in which initial accounts from immigration enforcement agencies regarding the use of force were later challenged by video footage or other evidence.
In October, Marimar Martinez, a woman from the Chicago area, was accused of driving her vehicle into law enforcement officers and was shot five times, but survived. Charges against her were later dropped after video evidence suggested officers may have struck her vehicle themselves.
Trump administration officials also said that Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two US citizens shot dead by federal agents in Minneapolis in January, had threatened officers before they were killed, despite video evidence to the contrary.
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In May, a Minnesota prosecutor charged an ICE agent with assaulting a Venezuelan man in a non-fatal shooting in Minneapolis during the same immigration enforcement campaign in which Good and Pretti were killed.
ICE said the FBI would lead the investigation into Tuesday’s shooting. The bureau did not immediately respond to requests for comment.