Elizdar, wife of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, listens during a news conference at the Law Office of Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch in Austin on Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, about the shooting of her husband by an ICE agent the previous day.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Venezuelan delivery driver Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez underwent surgery Thursday to remove a bullet lodged near his spine after he was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in North Austin last month, one of his attorneys said.
Garcés Pérez, 28, was returned to federal custody after the surgery, attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch said in a social media post late Thursday.
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“He had the bullet taken out of his body,” she said. “He’s OK, and this never should have happened.”
For nearly two weeks after the Sept. 20 shooting, Garcés Pérez’s legal team repeatedly called attention to the bullet and the delay in removing it, warning of possible infection and long-term mobility loss.
After a detention hearing in federal court Wednesday, Lincoln-Goldfinch said her client “still has a bullet lodged in his body.” She said that “physicians, nurses, medical ethicists and health advocates” had signed a letter demanding his release from the Department of Homeland Security. The letter was not publicly released. Lincoln-Goldfinch said she obtained Garcés Pérez’s medical records and asked independent experts to review them.
It is not clear what prompted the surgical removal Thursday. In a post on X on Friday, U.S. Congressman Greg Casar said the delay was “more proof of ICE cruelty.”
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Medical experts interviewed by the American-Statesman said doctors commonly leave bullets in a patient’s body, though they could not assess Garcés Pérez’s treatment without details about his wounds.
Dr. Pat Crocker, who worked for nearly 40 years in emergency medicine in Austin, including as chief of emergency medicine at Dell Seton, said “a whole lot is made of this in general” but “sometimes waiting is your best friend.”
He said doctors often do not operate unless a bullet threatens a vital organ. Surgery itself can cause infection or additional trauma, he said. In some situations, doctors may wait until a wound has begun to heal before removing a bullet.
“But as an emergency procedure, so you can hear the bullet drop into a steel pan when they pull it out, that is kind of a myth,” he said.
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Dr. Reed Smith, operational medical director for the Arlington County Fire and Police Department in Virginia, said doctors routinely leave a bullet in a person who has been shot.
“They look at where it is, what is being affected by it, and what the potential complication of getting the bullet out versus just leaving it in place,” he said. “I know that may be hard to believe but leaving the bullet in place may be the best scenario.”
DHS officials have denied that Garcés Pérez received insufficient care and said he received round-the-clock attention and necessary pain medication.
Two days after the shooting, Ascension, which owns Dell Seton Medical Center, released a statement saying its staff followed standard procedures for interacting with law enforcement while treating Garcés Pérez.
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“We are committed to providing safe, compassionate care to all those who enter our doors,” the statement said. “We have established procedures and policies related to interactions with law enforcement, which are the same regardless of agency—federal, state or local—that were strictly followed in this case.”
Garcés Pérez, whom federal prosecutors charged this week with assaulting and resisting a federal officer, appeared in federal court in Austin on Wednesday in a wheelchair and with an arm in a sling. A federal magistrate judge denied his request for bond at the hearing. It’s unclear what will happen next in the criminal case.
Garcés Pérez, a Venezuelan national, was shot during an encounter with two ICE agents while making a DoorDash delivery. Federal authorities allege he drove away from agents, struck one with his car’s side mirror and later tried to hit an officer with his vehicle. Garcés Pérez has said an unmarked law enforcement SUV struck his car and spun it around before an agent shot him.
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