\n But the three men who were riding in Salgado Araujo\u2019s work van told attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra the version of events presented by ICE is false: \u201cAt no point did they use the van to ram into the ICE agents and at no point were these ICE agents\u2019 lives ever in any danger,\u201d the lawyer said in a video posted to his Instagram<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Police lights flashed on in one unmarked ICE vehicle and the van slowed before ICE vehicles rammed into it, Balderas-Ibarra told The Washington Post<\/a>, citing the detained men. An ICE agent then exited his vehicle and opened fire almost immediately, striking Salgado Araujo, the lawyer said. CNN has reached out to him and ICE for comment.\n <\/p>\n Surveillance video shows the last minutes of an ICE led traffic stop that resulted in the death of Mexican national\n <\/p>\n Surveillance video shows the last minutes of an ICE led traffic stop that resulted in the death of Mexican national<\/p>\n 0:49<\/p>\n \n Videos obtained by CNN show Salgado Araujo\u2019s white work van being pursued by two black SUVs without apparent law enforcement markings.\n <\/p>\n \n One video shows a black SUV trailing Salgado Araujo\u2019s van as he drove down Canal Street. The white van appears to briefly stop before reversing and slowly driving on the sidewalk as three officers chase it. It\u2019s unclear what occurred between Salgado Araujo and ICE officers when the white van appeared to stop.\n <\/p>\n \n Complete details of the deadly encounter remain hazy as questions about how it escalated, calls for an independent investigation and community outcry mount. The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Office of the Inspector General and the Harris County District Attorney\u2019s Office are now investigating.\n <\/p>\n \n The case marks the first fatal shooting involving federal immigration agents since US citizens Ren\u00e9e Good<\/a> and Alex Pretti<\/a> were killed in ICE operations in Minneapolis. It again raises questions about who is targeted<\/a> by a nationwide immigration enforcement push the Trump administration says<\/a> aims to remove dangerous criminals from the US.\n <\/p>\n \n Salgado Araujo was not the target of the operation, a source familiar with preliminary details about the incident told CNN and local officials said during a news conference Friday, citing acting ICE director David Venturella.\n <\/p>\n \n Before Tuesday\u2019s encounter, Texas authorities had notified ICE about two people \u2014 neither of them Salgado Araujo \u2014 believed to be in the United States without legal status and traveling in a white van, according to the source.\n <\/p>\n \n In a news conference Friday, Democratic Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Texas said that account appeared different from what she was previously told by Venturella on Thursday. CNN has reached out to DHS for clarity about the differing accounts.\n <\/p>\n \n On Tuesday, \u201cOfficers were almost at the target\u2019s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop,\u201d a Homeland Security official told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n The van was registered to Salgado Araujo, whom agents determined to be in the country illegally, the source said. When ICE agents tried to stop Salgado Araujo, he rammed their vehicle, resulting in an officer firing his weapon in self-defense, the agency said.\n <\/p>\n A family seeks answers after ICE fatally shoots a man in Texas\n <\/p>\n A family seeks answers after ICE fatally shoots a man in Texas<\/p>\n 3:53<\/p>\n \n Salgado Araujo\u2019s family disputes the federal government\u2019s account and says the hardworking father of three would have stopped if he had known the car following him belonged to ICE.\n <\/p>\n \n The Department of Homeland Security has not released footage of the shooting, and none of the agents involved had been issued body-worn cameras, a spokesperson said. Body cameras have been deployed to more than half of ICE field offices, with the rest expected to get them within 60 days, an agency spokesperson said.\n <\/p>\n \n CNN has asked DHS about any available dashcam footage.\n <\/p>\n \n The absence of official footage in the Houston shooting has renewed questions about transparency<\/a> and accountability in immigration enforcement operations months after a federal judge in Chicago<\/a> ordered immigration agents involved in enforcement there to wear and activate body cameras.\n <\/p>\n \n The DHS Office of the Inspector General is now leading an investigation into the shooting, according to ICE. The FBI\u2019s Houston field office is also investigating the alleged assault on a federal law enforcement officer.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIf the officers acted outside policy or illegally, they\u2019ll be held accountable,\u201d White House border czar Tom Homan told reporters Friday.\n <\/p>\n \n But local officials, including the Harris County district attorney and the Houston mayor, have expressed frustrations about federal officials withholding evidence from the shooting.\n <\/p>\n \n The Harris County District Attorney\u2019s Office is pursuing its own investigation and independently collecting information on the shooting, though \u201caccess to key evidence remains under federal control,\u201d spokesperson Rafael Lemaitre said.\n <\/p>\n \n District Attorney Sean Teare told CNN\u2019s Erin Burnett on Friday his office has not yet had access to Salgado Araujo\u2019s work van, which he called \u201cone of, if not the most crucial piece of evidence.\u201d Teare said he would ask judges to grant them access to the van if necessary.\n <\/p>\n \n When asked by CNN about the van\u2019s whereabouts, DHS deferred to the FBI and OIG. The FBI deferred back to DHS. CNN has reached out to the Inspector General\u2019s office.\n <\/p>\n \n Cases in which a community member dies during an encounter with law enforcement are \u201cthe most critical cases to handle properly,\u201d Teare told Houston Public Media on Thursday.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe have got to be able to explain to the community in these cases more than any other that we are aboveboard, that we are transparent, that we are going to get to the bottom of it, whether we like the outcome or not.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Protecting the investigation\u2019s integrity is his top priority, Teare added: \u201cWe\u2019re going to look at every avenue, and if a state crime was committed, be it a murder, be it a manslaughter, be it tampering with evidence, we are going to investigate it. And if someone committed that crime, you don\u2019t get to hide behind a badge.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Houston Mayor John Whitmire said Friday the city does not have \u201cjurisdiction to investigate\u201d the shooting. But the Houston Police Department had offered its resources to help with the investigation, Chief Noe Diaz told DHS\u2019 Office of Inspector General and the FBI in letters shared with CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe FBI has all the evidence that would normally go in to an HPD or other law enforcement agency\u2019s investigation,\u201d Whitmire said at a news conference Friday. \u201cIn this instance, the van, the passengers, the deceased, and they\u2019re tightly controlling it. We\u2019ve reached out to them and asked them to share that information with HPD.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Balderas-Ibarra, who represents two of the passengers who were in the van with Salgado Araujo during the incident, called for his clients\u2019 immediate release from ICE\u2019s Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas, during Friday\u2019s news conference. Neither of their names has been released publicly by officials.\n <\/p>\n \n Garcia and Balderas-Ibarra said loved ones of the two detainees have told them they are being pressured to sign voluntary deportation forms<\/a> \u2014 an incentive program used to get undocumented immigrants to leave the country on their own.\n <\/p>\n \n ICE denied the allegation Friday, telling CNN \u201cIt is categorically false we would pressure someone to self-deport.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Salgado Araujo\u2019s brother, who was also in the vehicle during the traffic stop and has been detained, wants to remain in the US to seek justice for his brother, Ruby Powers, the Houston-based immigration attorney representing him, told CNN on Friday.\n <\/p>\n \n Meanwhile, the Mexican government moved Friday to elevate its concerns beyond diplomatic protest as it sought criminal investigations in the US and demanded accountability for 17 Mexican citizens<\/a> who have died in ICE\u2019s custody or enforcement operations, she said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe are preparing legal measures,\u201d Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday. \u201cObviously, more significant ones would go to different international bodies.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Texas Democratic lawmakers, activists and Salgado Araujo\u2019s family are demanding a more in-depth investigation into his killing, with the civil rights group League of United Latin American Citizens offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.\n <\/p>\n \n At Friday\u2019s news conference, Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green said he signed onto a Homeland Security Committee letter to Secretary Markwayne Mullin demanding evidence related to the shooting, including body camera footage with an explanation if no such video exists, details on how officers identified themselves, records related to the officers involved and any evidence supporting the government\u2019s account of events.\n <\/p>\n \n Salgado Araujo\u2019s body was picked up by the funeral home Friday after an autopsy was conducted by the Harris County medical examiner. The family is also pursuing an independent autopsy while grappling with their sudden loss, LULAC National President Roman Palomares said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cHe was young. He was healthy. He was strong. He had a whole lifetime ahead of him, and his family misses him,\u201d he said, predicting Friday will be tough for the family.\n <\/p>\n \n Like most days, Salgado Araujo left his home Tuesday to head to Houston\u2019s predominately Hispanic East End to pick up the rest of his construction crew \u2014 his brother and two others \u2014 before driving north to work on some homes, the family said.\n <\/p>\n \n Shortly before 7 a.m., ICE agents tried to stop him, the agency said.\n <\/p>\n \n CNN has asked DHS whether immigration enforcement agents identified themselves to Salgado Araujo.\n <\/p>\n \n After the shooting, a federal agent on a phone kneels over a wounded man lying face down and moaning in pain beside a white SUV parked near a barbershop, video shows. The right side of the wounded man\u2019s stomach was bleeding, said Juliet Martinez, a Houston resident who recorded the video and shared it with CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cHe was screaming for help and screaming that he was in pain,\u201d Martinez recalled. \u201cHe yelled, \u2018Help me! They shot me!\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Emergency services were contacted immediately after Salgado Araujo was shot, ICE said in a statement.\n <\/p>\n \n His cause of death was a gunshot wound to the torso and the manner of death was ruled a homicide, the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences told CNN on Thursday.\n <\/p>\n \n Salgado Araujo had prepared for the possibility of an encounter with federal immigration authorities, his son said. The father had consulted attorneys and planned to decline signing any documents before calling his wife or son to help secure his release, if ever detained.\n <\/p>\n \n He was also \u201cclose to obtaining his legal status,\u201d Ronaldo Salgado said. \u201cWe dotted every \u2018i,\u2019 crossed every \u2018t,\u2019 filled every document, attended every appointment.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Salgado Araujo had spent three decades living and working in the US while providing for his family and progressing toward a work permit, his son said, describing him as a private, hardworking family man.\n <\/p>\n \n Salgado Araujo did not appear to have a criminal record, according to the Harris County District Attorney\u2019s Office.\n <\/p>\n \n Garcia said Friday the ICE agents involved in the incident \u201cwere removed from Houston the very next day.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n CNN has asked DHS how many agents were involved in the incident, their rank within the department and if they had been reassigned or were placed on administrative leave.\n <\/p>\n \n Ronaldo Salgado wants the world to remember his father not for how he died but for the life he built as a husband, father and business owner who believed in the American dream.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cHe did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of \u2018Mexican man shot and killed by ICE,\u2019\u201d the son said at a news conference Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n Son of man killed by ICE agents demands independent investigation in interview with Erin Burnett\n <\/p>\n Son of man killed by ICE agents demands independent investigation in interview with Erin Burnett<\/p>\n 11:05<\/p>\n \n Salgado Araujo met his wife as a teenager in Mexico, his son said. Together, they raised three sons, emphasizing the idea of \u201ceducation taking us so far in life,\u201d Ronaldo Salgado said. The eldest son became a teacher, while his brothers went into engineering.\n <\/p>\n \n His father also built a successful construction business, working on hundreds of homes across the Houston area over three decades, his son said. Salgado Araujo was \u201cknown for his work ethic, his fairness, and his willingness to help anyone who needed it,\u201d a GoFundMe<\/a> organized for the family said.\n <\/p>\n \n On Friday night, community members gathered at a rally in San Antonio and called for a thorough investigation into the shooting. A community vigil<\/a> for Salgado Araujo is planned for Saturday at the Service Employees International Union Texas office in Houston at 10 a.m. CT.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI am deeply heartbroken to see that the man who taught me the value of hard work, family values and education will no longer spend an evening on that porch,\u201d Ronaldo Salgado said.\n <\/p>\n ![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/screenshot-2026-07-10-at-4-27-24-pm.png\")
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