Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare speaks during a news conference in Houston on Friday, July 10, 2026, regarding the officer-involved shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a federal immigration enforcement operation and the detention of the two passengers who were in the vehicle with him.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia speaks during a news conference in Houston on Friday, July 10, 2026, regarding the officer-involved shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a federal immigration enforcement operation and the detention of the two passengers who were in the vehicle with him.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare speaks during a news conference in Houston on Friday, July 10, 2026, regarding the officer-involved shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a federal immigration enforcement operation and the detention of the two passengers who were in the vehicle with him.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
U.S. Rep. Al Green speaks during a news conference in Houston on Friday, July 10, 2026, regarding the officer-involved shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a federal immigration enforcement operation and the detention of the two passengers who were in the vehicle with him.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia speaks during a news conference in Houston on Friday, July 10, 2026, regarding the officer-involved shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a federal immigration enforcement operation and the detention of the two passengers who were in the vehicle with him.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
U.S. Rep. Al Green speaks during a news conference in Houston on Friday, July 10, 2026, regarding the officer-involved shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a federal immigration enforcement operation and the detention of the two passengers who were in the vehicle with him.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia speaks during a news conference in Houston on Friday, July 10, 2026, regarding the officer-involved shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a federal immigration enforcement operation and the detention of the two passengers who were in the vehicle with him.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare speaks during a news conference in Houston on Friday, July 10, 2026, regarding the officer-involved shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a federal immigration enforcement operation and the detention of the two passengers who were in the vehicle with him.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
U.S. Rep. Al Green speaks during a news conference in Houston on Friday, July 10, 2026, regarding the officer-involved shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a federal immigration enforcement operation and the detention of the two passengers who were in the vehicle with him.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
Houston area leaders launching their own investigation into the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an ICE agent said during a Friday news conference that they are concerned about federal transparency and cooperation.
Outrage over the shooting of Salgado has deepened since Thursday, when U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia announced David Venturella, acting director of ICE, confirmed Salgado was not the intended target of immigration agents. An ICE agent fatally shot Salgado in the abdomen early Tuesday after agents attempted to pull over his van in the 6800 block of Canal Street.
Salgado has long lived as a business owner in Houston, and is the father to U.S citizens, according to Houston attorney Hugo Baldera-Ybarra.
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The Harris County District Attorney’s office vowed Friday to conduct a thorough investigation into the shooting. But according to Garcia, Venturella said DHS has no timeline for the federal investigation. And while the Congressional Committee on the Department of Homeland Security has sent a letter full of demands for information to DHS, leaders are wary that cooperation will be a challenge. Minnesota officials, for example, have launched their own investigations into the January shootings of Renee Good, Alex Pretti and Julio Sosa-Celis. Still, they have not received federal cooperation; the state and local county attorney have filed a lawsuit to force them to comply, and that suit is still being heard in court.
“These are not normal times,” Garcia said Friday. “Normally, we would’ve immediately called the justice department’s civil rights division and they probably would’ve been here the next day. But these are not normal times …We have orders from the white house to just pick up everyone we can anyway they can.”
Body cameras will be worn end of month, Garcia says
Garcia told press Friday that Venturella said ICE agents were searching for an individual with a final removal order and an administrative warrant. Venturella couldn’t identify the person the operation was targeting, Garcia said.
DHS did not immediately respond to the Chronicle’s request for comment.
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The federal immigration agents involved in the fatal shooting did not have body cameras, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Thursday. Garcia said Friday that ICE received $20 million for body cameras from congress, and former director Kristi Noem promised cameras would be utilized. Venturella promised Garcia that agents would get body cameras by the end of July, she said.
“And trust me, I will hold him to it. And I will make sure all my colleague in Congress … will hold him to it,” she said.
Lawyer worried men detained will be pressured to self-deport
Garcia said conflicting testimonies and videos, that appear to show no damage to the van, make her question ICE’s account of the shooting of Salgado.
“This is a straight copy playbook of ICE,” Garcia said, referencing the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minnesota. “I’m not prepared to say today that it’s all lies, but it sure is looking that way.”
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Hugo Baldera-Ybarra, the lawyer for three workers in the van who ICE also detained, said his clients’ version of events is extremely different from ICE’s description of the shooting.
Baldera-Ybarra said during Friday’s news conference that his clients were being held at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe. He called for their immediate release and said he is worried they will be coerced into signing documents for their voluntary departure.
“My clients will forever be physically and emotionally scarred by this. None of these families will ever be whole again. One man lost a brother. The other two men lost a dear friend.”
Balderas-Ibarra provided the Washington Post with “written and oral accounts” of his discussion with the men, Jose Trinidad Rojas, 51, Daniel Tirado Pantoja, 43 and Salgado’s brother, Victor Salgado, 44. Balderas-Ibarra said the men were not being held together, but they gave him similar accounts of the confrontation with the agents, which contradict ICE’s explanation that Salgado “weaponized” his vehicle.
The men said no immigration agents were positioned in front of or behind the van. The officers approached the van and fired into it from its side, according to the report. The men also say ICE officers may have also fired multiple shots into the van as they moved in to arrest the group.
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READ MORE: Houston man killed by ICE agent was not initial target, Rep. Sylvia Garcia says
DA says office conducting its own investigation, collaborating with HPD
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said his office has been conducting its own investigation into the shooting — even though “they were not invited” by federal agencies. Typically, Teare said his office collaborates with local and federal law enforcement on the investigations.
“Almost universally we present the case to a grand jury and let them decide.”
Investigators with the DA’s office are doing “everything we can and do in every case to ensure that a full fair investigation is conducted so that we can be transparent with our community.” Investigators have been obtaining surveillance footage and conducting witness interviews, Teare said.
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He urged any community members with any information, “even a snippet,” to send them to his office, adding that even the smallest piece could be “pivotal.”
Teare said his office needs to be careful about releasing certain details to protect “the integrity” of the investigation. Teare said his office has been collaborating with the Houston Police Department.
“They’re being very collaborative as they always are,” Teare said of HPD, adding that the FBI has also been “incredibly communicative.”
Houston Mayor John Whitmire on Friday announced that he directed Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz to send a letter to the DHS and to the FBI “indicating he will make all appropriate HPD resources available to support the investigation into the fatal shooting” of Salgado.
Whitmire has backed a rigorous investigation into Salgado’s killing but stopped short of announcing an independent one earlier this week.
Experts told the Houston Chronicle that while Houston police and the district attorney’s office have the ability to conduct an independent investigation, the agencies have no guarantee federal agencies will cooperate.
Those calling for an independent investigation say ICE’s explanation of the shooting — that Salgado evaded arrest and tried to weaponize his car against agents — is similar to the initial narratives the agency put out in the January killing of Good. They also pointed out that ICE’s description of three separate Minnesota shootings in January were refuted by video footage.
Despite difficulties Minnesota leaders have had getting federal agencies to cooperate in independent investigations into ICE-related shootings, Teare said he has “full confidence” DHS and the Office of the Inspector General will share evidence with his office.
Committee on DHS sends letter of demands
U.S. Rep. Al Green, who sits on the committee of the Department of Homeland Security, thanked Teare for “not allowing the feds to bully” him. Green stressed that any member of local law enforcement has the ability to investigate.
“(Salgado) belongs to the constitution of the United States of America,” Green said, while beating his chest. “That constitution applies to him just as it applies to me … he should not receive any less attention from the constitution that I or any of you would receive.”
Green said the members of the Committee on Homeland Security sent a letter to DHS saying they are investigating the fatal shooting of Salgado, as well as the Trump’s administration response to the killing.
Green said Benny Thompson, ranking member of the committee, has promised he will see to it that the committee investigates at the federal level and that if that federal investigation does not happen, Thompson will initiate “a shadow hearing in Houston.”
The committee in their letter demanded DHS hand over any footage of the shooting, an explanation as to why agents were not wearing body cameras and how ICE identified themselves at the scene in East Houston. The letter demands a list of any previous complaints against the ICE officer who fatally shot Salgado and evidence of damage to vehicles. Committee members in their letter also demanded to know whether any witnesses to the shooting have been deported or pressured to self-deport.