Austin-based immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch is the legal counsel representing the man shot by ICE agents, identified as Venezuelan national Wilber Rafael Garces Perez. Lincoln-Goldfinch held a press conference at 1 p.m. on Monday, September 21, to share the latest information regarding his case, confirming he was now in custody at the South Texas ICE Processing Center — located approximately 135 miles away in Pearsall, Texas.
She said that location was confirmed around 10 a.m. Monday morning, approximately 21 hours after the shooting happened.
“[Myself and his wife] spoke to him, and we learned that at 4 o’clock [Sunday] he still had a bullet lodged in his back,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said. “And they didn’t take the bullet out, and they didn’t give him pain medication, and they transferred him to ICE to a processing center where he spent the night without a bed.”
She said he arrived at that facility at 4 a.m. Monday and has since been interrogated by ICE. Lincoln-Goldfinch said Perez told her he was driving for DoorDash when an unmarked black truck sideswiped him. She said Perez then did a U-turn beneath Interstate 35 and the truck chased him, sideswiped him again and then agents exited the truck and shot him before pulling him out of his car.
“And yet, ICE has put out statements that there was a foot chase,” she said. “We have video evidence that there was no foot chase. We are fed up with ICE and DHS telling us lies about what has happened in these incidents where people are being murdered and shot.”
Lincoln-Goldfinch said Perez was in the middle of a DoorDash delivery and had a valid work permit at the time of the shooting, with city and law enforcement officials confirming he was shot in his torso area and transported to Dell Seton Medical Center in serious but stable condition. As of Monday afternoon, it is unclear what happened in the events leading up to the shooting.
She also alleged the hospital “refused to give his wife access to him or provide any meaningful details on his condition,” adding Austin Mayor Kirk Watson personally drove to the hospital to deliver information on Perez’s condition and detainment to his wife.
Watson condemned the ICE-involved shooting, noting an escalation in stops and detainments between ICE and Austin residents in recent weeks.
“I’m very angry about this…a person being shot on the streets of Austin purporting to be law enforcement, particularly when it’s ICE, is something that causes me to be unhappy and angry about it,” Watson said during a Sunday press conference, adding: “Austinites have a right to know what happened. It’s their city. They have seen what’s happened in other places when there’s been a shooting like this that ICE has been involved in.”
Watson and Police Chief Lisa Davis are requesting participation in the shooting investigation, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Watson stressed his concerns with a scenario where the city and Austin Police Department aren’t involved in said investigation and the credibility of DHS’ sole findings.