{"id":382127,"date":"2026-07-22T08:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T08:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/382127\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T08:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T08:07:09","slug":"ice-shooting-passengers-say-agents-rammed-van-before-firing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/382127\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE shooting passengers say agents rammed van before firing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two passengers in a van when an immigration agent fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo earlier this month said that two unmarked vehicles struck them from behind and the side before they stopped, according to their written statements filed in a Houston federal court.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt no moment were the agents in front of the vehicle,\u201d Daniel Tirado Pantoja, a rear passenger in the van, said in his hand-written statement in Spanish. \u201cLorenzo (Salgado Araujo) had come to a full stop while the agents fired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, who was also in the back seat, wrote in his statement that a patrol vehicle chased them, but Salgado Araujo believed he had lost the unmarked vehicles. <\/p>\n

\u201cOut of nowhere, they suddenly cornered us and we told Lorenzo (Salgado Araujo) to stop the van,\u201d Rojas Pliego wrote. \u201cWhen Lorenzo stopped the van, the officer shot him anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after the July 7 shooting in Houston\u2019s heavily Latino east side, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokespeople said an agent fired in self-defense after Salgado Araujo attempted to hit the agent with his vehicle. <\/p>\n

But Rojas Pliego said it was \u201cimpossible to say that they were going to get run over. That\u2019s a lie \u2014 no officer was behind nor in front \u2014 they were on the sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excerpts of the men\u2019s statements have been previously reported<\/a> by The Washington Post. The full statements in Spanish, along with English translations, became public on Monday when they were attached as exhibits as part of petitions filed by Houston attorney Raed Gonzalez seeking the men\u2019s release from an immigration detention facility in nearby Conroe. <\/p>\n

Tirado Pantoja wrote in his statement that one of the ICE vehicles struck the van from behind before the same vehicle struck the van from the side. At some point, presumably after he was shot, Salgado Araujo yelled, \u201cYa me mataron\u201d \u2014 they killed me.<\/p>\n

Tirado Pantoja also said that another agent switched guns with the agent who fired his weapon. In his statement, he wrote that an agent fired multiple times.<\/p>\n

Rojas Pliego wrote that after Salgado Araujo was shot, an agent violently pulled him out of the van and handcuffed his wrists and ankles on the ground before agents did the same to the three other men.<\/p>\n

Salgado Araujo\u2019s brother, who was the front passenger, wrote in his statement that an agent fired once from the passenger side of the van. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he shot my brother, the gun was in front of my face,\u201d he wrote, according to attorney Hugo Balderas Ibarra\u2019s account to The Washington Post. The brother\u2019s written statement was not included in the most recent court filings.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

A federal judge in Houston on Monday ordered<\/a> DHS to not deport Rojas Pliego or transfer him to a detention facility outside the region without the court\u2019s permission. A DHS spokesperson said on Tuesday that ICE will comply with the court order.<\/p>\n

Tirado Pantoja\u2019s petition was assigned to a different federal judge, who has not issued any directive on the case as of Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The court filings also included passionate character reference letters from family members and an employer for the men, saying that they are kind and hardworking. Available public records and their own petitions say none had a criminal record and at least two of the four men, including Salgado Araujo, did not have prior deportation orders. <\/p>\n

Ruby Powers, a Houston attorney representing Salgado Araujo\u2019s brother, Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, also filed a similar petition seeking his release, but asked a judge to keep it sealed because she fears the high-profile case could put him and his family in danger of \u201cretaliation or intimidation.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The shooting has renewed public criticism and scrutiny of the tactics ICE agents use to carry out President Trump\u2019s mass deportation goals. Since his administration returned to office, Democratic lawmakers and immigrant rights advocates have decried ICE agents covering their faces and driving unmarked vehicles during deportation attempts.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has provided scant details about what led to ICE killing Salgado Araujo. In its initial statement, an unnamed ICE spokesperson said that Salgado Araujo \u201crammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for DHS, which oversees ICE, have repeatedly declined to answer detailed questions about Salgado Araujo\u2019s killing. The agents involved were not wearing body cameras. <\/p>\n

There were also no dashboard cameras, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, said<\/a> Acting ICE Director David Venturella informed her. <\/p>\n

But the Tribune, along with other media outlets, pieced <\/a>together neighborhood surveillance footage and other witness cell phone videos that provide the only available look into the deadly pursuit so far. Fourteen policing experts who reviewe<\/a>d the footage agreed that among their many concerns about the stop was that ICE agents didn\u2019t appear to use emergency lights and sirens. <\/p>\n

Border czar unsure if agents used lights, sirens<\/p>\n

In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, the White House\u2019s top immigration official, border czar Tom Homan, defended the agency\u2019s use of unmarked vehicles that in the past two weeks have led to the deaths of both Salgado Araujo and a 25-year-old Colombian immigrant in Maine. <\/p>\n

Homan said that all ICE vehicles should have emergency lights and sirens that they must employ when attempting to stop drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they didn\u2019t activate the lights, then there\u2019s an issue there,\u201d Homan said<\/a>. \u201cThey should have been equipped with lights and sirens, but I do not know specifically if they activated those lights (in the two recent shootings).\u201d<\/p>\n

Homan also said<\/a> that he wants body cameras for all ICE officers \u201cas soon as possible\u201d after none of the ICE agents involved in either two incidents were wearing them. <\/p>\n

In a videotaped statement<\/a> days after taking office last week, Aaron Reitz, the new Assistant Attorney General for the Southern District of Texas, offered additional details about the pursuit and shooting \u2014 some of them contradicted by the van\u2019s passengers. <\/p>\n

Reitz said federal officers were investigating two Guatemalan men who had previously evaded arrest and were driving a white van.<\/p>\n

Reitz, whose office is one of several agencies investigating Salgado Araujo\u2019s shooting, said he believed that \u201cbased on preliminary information\u201d the ICE officers then spotted a \u201csimilar van in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the two ICE vehicles \u2014 a dark gray Jeep Grand Cherokee and a black Nissan Pathfinder \u2014 each with two agents inside, then turned on their emergency lights and tried to pull over the van \u201cand the men that fit the suspects\u2019 description.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe aliens then fled, conducting a rapid U-turn and hopping a median to get away,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The ICE agents didn\u2019t pursue but later came across what Reitz suggested was the same van, although DHS did not independently corroborate this to the Tribune. Salgado Araujo and all of his passengers were Mexican citizens.<\/p>\n

According to Reitz, once ICE encountered Salgado Araujo\u2019s white van, the driver tried to flee and \u201cthis time the agents successfully surrounded the vehicle.\u201d Two officers got out of their vehicles and instructed the men to put the van into park, he said.<\/p>\n

This interaction is not visible in the available video footage, which largely does not contain audio. Three people in what appears to be plain clothes with bulletproof vests, presumably the ICE agents, can be seen running after the van as it slowly appears to roll to a stop. <\/p>\n

\u201cPreliminary information indicates the driver shifted the van into reverse, then forward again, while an officer was partially inside the van or immediately next to it,\u201d Reitz alleged.<\/p>\n

This is also not visible on available video and is contradicted by the accounts of the passengers in Salgado Araujo\u2019s van. <\/p>\n

Experts who reviewed the available footage, as well as photographs of the van before and after the pursuit, said that the damage to the driver\u2019s side of the vehicle suggests that it was ICE agents who caused that scrape.<\/p>\n

The placing of Salgado Araujo\u2019s fatal wound, to the lower right of his abdomen, additionally indicates that officers fired through the front right passenger window, which experts said indicates the shooting agents were not in harm\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

The FBI later sought a search warrant to test plastic bags containing a white substance visible inside the van. Although FBI testing has been ongoing since Thursday, a lawyer for Salgado Araujo\u2019s brother said that <\/a>substance was actually salt that the men mixed with water as a way to prevent dehydration from working in the Texas heat. <\/p>\n

Praised by families, employer<\/p>\n

Letters from family members and an employer filed in court describe the van\u2019s passengers as kind and hardworking men who have done nothing wrong. <\/p>\n

In a statement, Eric Portillo said he has known Tirado Pantoja for years through his construction work and praised his integrity and dedication. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe has earned the trust and respect of everyone who has worked for him, not only because of his craftsmanship, but because of the kind person he is,\u201d Portillo wrote. \u201cDaniel is a devoted family man who has spent years working to provide for those he loves. His detention has been heartbreaking for his family and for those of us who know him personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monserrat Cardoso, who said Tirado Pantoja has played a fatherly role in her life since starting to date her mother in 2014, said she and her family have been \u201cdevastated\u201d by the situation.<\/p>\n

Apolonia Martinez identified Rojas Pliego as her partner since 2016, describing him in a statement as a \u201cloving person\u201d who has taken good care of her during an illness. <\/p>\n

Griselda Silva, his stepdaughter, called him \u201cone of the nicest sweetest kind hearted [people] there is. He is the type of person who will help other[s] in need, just like he has help[ed] my children and I when we most needed it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Disclosure: CBS News has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in The Texas Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,3647,6473],"class_list":["post-382127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-well-a-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}