{"id":405388,"date":"2026-08-13T10:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T10:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/405388\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T10:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T10:45:11","slug":"ice-detained-a-man-in-houston-after-he-reported-a-shooting-to-local-police-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/405388\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE detained a man in Houston after he reported a shooting to local police \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"In<\/a><\/p>\n

AP Photo\/Gregory Bull, File<\/p>\n

In this July 8, 2019, file photo, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer looks on during an operation in Escondido, Calif.<\/p>\n

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detained a man in Houston last weekend after he called the Houston Police Department (HPD) to report a shooting in a Home Depot parking lot, raising renewed questions about the department\u2019s cooperation with the federal agency and potentially limiting prosecutors\u2019 ability to investigate the shooting. <\/p>\n

According to an ICE statement published by the Houston Chronicle<\/a>, which first reported the arrest, federal agents detained 54-year-old Juan Francisco Monroy Turuy because he was allegedly “convicted of a criminal offense.” ICE did not provide details regarding the charges against Monroy, a Guatemalan citizen, according to the Chronicle, which reported that he was being held in a detention facility in Montgomery County as of Wednesday. <\/p>\n

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

Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

In a statement to Houston Public Media, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said ICE’s detainment of Monroy could dissuade future witnesses to crimes from contacting law enforcement. <\/p>\n

“When you have reportees and witnesses getting detained and arrested while cooperating with law enforcement, that’s inherently going to negatively impact witnesses and victim cooperation,” Teare said. “It’s making people less safe.”<\/p>\n

RELATED: Harris County DA’s investigation into fatal ICE shooting gets $2.5 million boost from commissioners<\/a><\/p>\n

The incident Sunday comes as three witnesses to the fatal July 7 shooting<\/a> of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an ICE agent in Houston\u2019s East End continue their legal battles to be released from ICE custody. One of the three men, Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, remained out of detention as of Wednesday. Federal prosecutors have said in court filings they plan to appeal Pliego\u2019s release<\/a>, which was ordered by a federal district court judge, although as of Wednesday they had not yet filed an appeal with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. <\/p>\n

The other two witnesses, Daniel Tirada Pantoja and Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo<\/a>, remained in ICE custody.<\/p>\n

All three of the men are immigrants and were passengers in the vehicle that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was driving when he was shot and killed by an ICE agent. The three passengers have disputed ICE\u2019s claim<\/a> that Salgado Araujo tried to run over an agent and was shot in self-defense. <\/p>\n

HPD\u2019s role<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the Houston City Council adopted<\/a> and then revised<\/a> an ordinance that sought to limit HPD’s coordination with ICE as well as how long local police officers could hold someone with a civil immigration warrant while waiting for ICE. The ordinance was amended after a funding threat by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and HPD subsequently issued a department directive enabling officers to “wait a reasonable amount of time<\/a>” for ICE to “obtain custody” of people with civil immigration warrants.<\/p>\n

A HPD spokesperson told Houston Public Media on Wednesday the department had not contacted federal agents when it responded to the report of a shooting over the weekend at the Home Depot. <\/p>\n

According to HPD, the shooting occurred in the 10000 block of Bellaire Boulevard at approximately 9:30 a.m. Sunday. A spokesperson for the department said officers arrived on scene, spoke with Monroy, left the scene of the shooting to arrest the suspected shooter, and returned to the scene to find federal agents detaining Monroy. <\/p>\n

RELATED: Deported Honduran man sues city after Houston police allegedly detained him for 2 hours while waiting for ICE<\/a><\/p>\n

The police department spokesperson said it was unclear if officers were able to continue to interview Monroy as a witness to the shooting after federal agents detained him. <\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters Wednesday at Houston City Hall, Mayor John Whitmire also said HPD was unaware of ICE’s presence at the scene of the shooting Sunday. <\/p>\n

“[A] gunshot went off in southwest Houston. HPD has to make the call,” Whitmire said. “We were nowhere near ICE until we discovered at the scene that ICE was there.”<\/p>\n

David Mendez, 24, was arrested on Sunday and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm in connection with the shooting at the Home Depot parking lot. No injuries were reported as Mendez allegedly fired a shot into the air. <\/p>\n

Mendez’s court-appointed defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n

Houston Public Media\u2019s Bianca Seward and Dominic Walsh contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AP Photo\/Gregory Bull, File In this July 8, 2019, file photo, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3766,2441,294,44743,56,58,3771,57,2543,45856,1724,3647,865,66,129319,223,672],"class_list":["post-405388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-city-of-houston","tag-court","tag-crime","tag-harris-county-district-attorney","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-mayor-john-whitmire","tag-houston-news","tag-houston-police-department","tag-ice-arrests","tag-immigration","tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-law-enforcement","tag-local","tag-lorenzo-salgado-araujo","tag-news","tag-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405388","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=405388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}