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Flowers and candles are placed, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, near the site where an ICE officer shot a Venezuelan man during a traffic stop the day before, in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n
Jesse Bedayn\/AP Photo\/Jesse Bedayn<\/p>\n
A vehicle with a damaged door and broken window is left in the street after a man was shot in his vehicle by an ICE officer, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (Aaron E. Martinez \/Austin American-Statesman via AP)<\/p>\n
Aaron E. Martinez\/Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin America<\/p>\n
People protest where local authorities say a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer (ICE) shot and wounded a man in Austin, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026.<\/p>\n
Joel Angel Juarez\/AP Photo\/Joel Angel Juarez<\/p>\n
A federal agent walks past a vehicle with a damaged door and holes in the window after a man was shot in his vehicle by an ICE officer, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (Aaron E. Martinez \/Austin American-Statesman via AP)<\/p>\n
Aaron E. Martinez\/Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin America<\/p>\n
Flowers and candles are placed, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, near the site where an ICE officer shot a Venezuelan man during a traffic stop the day before, in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n
Jesse Bedayn\/AP Photo\/Jesse Bedayn<\/p>\n
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 A Venezuelan man shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was in custody Monday at an ICE detention center in Texas after he was released from a hospital with a bullet still lodged in his back, according to a spokesperson for the man’s attorney.<\/p>\n
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Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was making a DoorDash delivery in the Texas capital of Austin on Sunday before he was shot during a traffic stop, said Fabiana Mel\u00e9ndez Ruiz, a spokesperson for immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch.<\/p>\n
Ruiz said that Perez called his wife around 12:30 p.m. Sunday to tell her that he had been shot. She said Perez’s wife hasn’t spoken with him since then.<\/p>\n
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Perez was being detained at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) southwest of Austin, Ruiz told The Associated Press. She said Lincoln-Goldfinch spoke by phone with Perez, who told her that he was being interrogated while a bullet remained in his back. Perez also said he had no pain medication, according to Ruiz.<\/p>\n
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has released little information and has not said what prompted the shooting. In a statement early Monday, the department said it was investigating the shooting of a Venezuelan man in the U.S. illegally who \u201chad a final order of removal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perez is an asylum seeker and entered the United States through a parole program, and he has no criminal history, Ruiz said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegardless of his status, the use of force was unwarranted,” Ruiz said. “As far as we understand, he was here legally.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shooting occurred amid a surge in ICE enforcement across the U.S. during President Donald Trump’s second term. During the summer, it reported more than 50,000 monthly arrests in July and August \u2014 a first for the agency.<\/p>\n
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Immigration officers have come under intense scrutiny amid a series of shootings during the crackdown. At least four people have been fatally shot by federal officers during immigration enforcement operations this year.<\/p>\n
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis told reporters Sunday that the shooting occurred following a traffic stop. She said local police were not involved. Local officials said the man was shot once in the torso and had been hospitalized in serious but stable condition.<\/p>\n
Perez’s wife and attorney were unable to get information on his condition from the hospital Sunday until hospital attorneys told them at around 6 p.m. that he had been discharged 90 minutes earlier, Ruiz said.<\/p>\n
She said that ICE had not confirmed any information to Lincoln-Goldfinch, who used legal databases and other means to discover where he was being detained.<\/p>\n
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat, said Sunday he wants local police to have a role in investigating the shooting. Watson said it wouldn\u2019t be appropriate for ICE to investigate on its own.<\/p>\n
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At the scene of the shooting, a dark blue Toyota Corolla was parked under an overpass with damage to its passenger-side door and what appeared to be bullet holes before it was towed away Sunday evening.<\/p>\n
About 100 anti-ICE protesters gathered Sunday in the shooting\u2019s aftermath.<\/p>\n
Associated Press journalist Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed.<\/p>\n
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