Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a Venezuelan national, was working when he was shot once in the torso and rushed to hospital, his lawyer told reporters. The 28 year-old was in a serious but stable condition.<\/p>\n
Local officials are seeking answers from federal authorities, who have not yet said what led up to the shooting<\/a> or whether he was a target of ICE. The shooting comes months after a man was shot dead by an ICE officer in Houston<\/a>, Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n Attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an immigration lawyer representing the family, told CBS that Garces Perez called his wife \u201cyelling in pain\u201d. She told NPR that he was in ICE custody.<\/p>\n Officials said that city police<\/a> officers were not present at the time of the shooting, which took place at the intersection of U.S. 183 and Anderson Square in North Austin<\/a> at around 12:55pm local time.<\/p>\n Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said she was told the shooter \u201cis an ICE agent,\u201d and Mayor Kirk Watson said he was \u201cvery angry\u201d over the shooting.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of what makes me angry about this, part of what makes me so unhappy about it, is that we live in a time where there’s a politics of fear, where people are trying to create fear<\/a>,\u201d Watson said.<\/p>\n Watson said there was \u201cno reason for us to be surprised\u201d by the shooting, given \u201cthe nature of ICE and how it\u2019s doing its business\u201d in other cities. He called for an independent, third-party investigation, saying it \u201cwould not be appropriate\u201d to let ICE conduct the probe<\/a>.<\/p>\n Davis said: \u201cI trust the Texas Rangers, and I trust [the Texas Department of Public Safety]…to work alongside us and to get \u2014 to get answers. Absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement<\/a> published on social media, the Department of Homeland Security described the victim as \u201can illegal alien from Venezuela, who illegally entered our country under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe illegal alien\u2019s condition is stable, and he is in federal custody pending removal. This is a developing situation, and we will update the public when more information becomes available,\u201d the department wrote on X.<\/p>\n Lincoln-Goldfinch, representing the family, contested the claims, telling Fox News: \u201cWe do not want to speculate or provide information that has not yet been confirmed. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat we do understand is that he previously held a valid work permit and that, based on the information available to us, he entered the United States lawfully.\u201d<\/p>\n Spokespersons for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security didn\u2019t immediately return inquiries from The Independent.<\/p>\n Photographs taken at the scene show a dark blue Toyota Corolla with damage along its passenger side and what appear to be two bullet holes in the rear window.<\/p>\n The police chief said she couldn\u2019t confirm a report that the car was sideswiped and that the ICE agent fired multiple shots through its rear windshield.<\/p>\n \u201cThat’s not what I’m hearing. I’m hearing that it was out on foot…there was a small foot pursuit,\u201d she said, adding that \u201cthis is all very preliminary\u201d and that she hadn\u2019t been briefed by federal officials.<\/p>\n The shooting prompted a crowd of demonstrators to gather near the scene late on Sunday. People carried flags and signs, including one that read: \u201cJustice 4 Wilbur\u201d<\/p>\n Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, whose district covers the shooting scene, said: \u201cI think the obvious should be said, that there is a reason that people in Austin and across the country are deeply suspicious of anything that ICE has said.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople in the community don’t know all the facts, but people are hurting and upset because they see how ICE has shot and, in some cases, even killed people with impunity in other parts of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Casar also called on ICE to end what he called its \u201csurge of officers here\u201d and to instead \u201cbe focused on transparently working on issues of crime, not what they’ve been doing consistently here in Austin before this event.\u201d<\/p>\n The mayor said local officials \u201chave seen an increase, we believe, in the number of incidents where ICE has detained somebody, stopped somebody, those sorts of instances.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it happened in a relatively brief period of time,\u201d Watson said. \u201cI think in one week we saw it go from: count them on one hand to in the thirties, and that happened in less than a couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n The incident in Austin follows a string of immigration-related shootings by federal law-enforcement officers carrying out Trump\u2019s pledge to conduct the \u201clargest mass deportation program in history,\u201d which has a reported goal of expelling 1 million people a year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Federal immigration officials have been involved in multiple shootings this year, including the killing of two US citizens in Minnesota, which sparked a widespread backlash. More than 50 people have died in ICE detention since Trump returned to office last year.<\/p>\n In Minneapolis, two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were fatally shot while separately protesting ICE operations in January, leading to the ouster of then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who falsely accused them of domestic terrorism.<\/p>\n ICE officers also allegedly killed Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Colombian national Johan Sebasti\u00e1n Dur\u00e1n Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, during separate traffic stops in July, even though neither was the target of an investigation.<\/p>\n The incidents led Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to order a temporary halt to vehicle stops by ICE. Trump immediately criticized the directive, leading Mullin to countermand it the following day.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026-09-20T210206Z_741865908_RC23NNAUX1PG_RTRMADP_3_TEXAS-SHOOTING.JPG\")
A damaged car after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot a person earlier in the day in Austin (Reuters)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789994539_434_2026-09-20T212040Z_140994522_RC23NNASCPBD_RTRMADP_3_TEXAS-SHOOTING.JPG\")
A car at the scene of the shooting in Austin, Texas, appears to have bullet holes in it (Reuters)<\/p>\n![\"Graffiti](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2295814664...jpeg\")
Graffiti at the site of the shooting reads ‘death to the immigration police’, on 20 September (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2296310738...jpeg\")
People protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers Sunday (Getty)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2296310739...jpeg\")
A federal ICE officer shot and wounded a person earlier this afternoon in North Austin (Getty)<\/p>\n