{"id":404123,"date":"2026-08-12T02:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T02:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/404123\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T02:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T02:34:16","slug":"ice-arrests-witness-in-active-hpd-shooting-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/404123\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE arrests witness in active HPD shooting investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Francisco<\/p>\n

Francisco Mendoza, 57, and his grandson, Felix Torres, 12, hold posters during a news conference concerning a lawsuit filed by Erick Ruiz Lopez outside Houston Police Department headquarters in downtown Houston on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026.<\/p>\n

Raquel Natalicchio\/Houston Chronicle\"An<\/p>\n

An ICE agent makes an arrest following a traffic stop made by a Department of Public Safety officer in Mustang Ridge, outside Austin, Thursday, April 16, 2026.<\/p>\n

Mikala Compton\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n

A man called Houston police<\/a> to report someone firing a gun outside a Home Depot on Sunday but was arrested by federal immigration agents before officers could complete their investigation, according to a police report.<\/p>\n

The incident comes as the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have spurred weeks of protests across Houston following the fatal ICE shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo<\/a> in Magnolia Park last month and amid ongoing debate over how the Houston Police Department<\/a> should interact with the federal agency.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Houston investigating claim police held man for ICE during 2-hour traffic stop<\/a><\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

It was unclear what led to the caller\u2019s arrest, but the police report states: \u201cHPD did not assist ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said the case is an example of what he\u2019s been warning about for months \u2013 ICE tactics are damaging public safety<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have reportees and witnesses getting detained and arrested while cooperating with law enforcement, that\u2019s inherently going to negatively impact witnesses and victim cooperation,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s making people less safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since President Donald Trump embarked on an immigration crackdown last year, Teare has said witnesses have disappeared or been unwilling to testify in court, making it more difficult to prosecute serious crimes, from homicide to aggravated sexual assault of a child.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Inside the collapse of Houston\u2019s ICE policy<\/a><\/p>\n

Officials with\u00a0HPD didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment about the Home Depot gunfire case.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Late Tuesday, ICE officials in a prepared statement said the witness was Juan Francisco Monroy Turuy, 54, a Guatemalan citizen who had been “convicted of a criminal offense” the agency did not name. Agents let him provide a statement to HPD identifying the suspect before he was taken into custody, the statement said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of Tuesday, Monroy remained at a processing facility in Montgomery County, according to the statement.<\/p>\n

Witnesses to crimes who are in ICE custody\u00a0still can\u00a0be removed from the country, the statement said, though HPD could file paperwork asking that he remain in the country.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

The incident happened around 9:30 a.m. Sunday in the 10000 block of Bellaire Boulevard, according to the police report. Monroy called police and said someone wearing all black had fired a pistol multiple times.<\/p>\n

Officers arrived and spoke to Monroy, who described the man firing the gun and pointed them to casings on the ground, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Officers searched the area and arrested David Elias Mendez, 24, in connection with the incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When officers returned to the scene, they saw several men running through the parking lot, and found ICE agents had arrested Monroy, according to the report.<\/p>\n

While Monroy was in ICE custody, officers presented Mendez to him and he said Mendez was the man he had seen firing the gun, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

Mendez was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, court records show. He has a lengthy criminal history in Harris County, including one charge filed just two days prior to Sunday\u2019s incident, for terroristic threat with fear of significant bodily injury. As of Tuesday, he did not have a listed defense attorney.<\/p>\n

Council Member Tiffany Thomas, whose District F includes the area where Sunday\u2019s incident happened, said ICE\u2019s actions are undercutting local law enforcement\u2019s relationship with the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a good job of getting immigrants to call law enforcement when they saw something,\u201d she said. \u201cBut now, when you\u2019re calling, they\u2019re rounding you up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Francisco Mendoza, 57, and his grandson, Felix Torres, 12, hold posters during a news conference concerning a lawsuit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-404123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404123","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=404123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}