{"id":443264,"date":"2026-09-21T19:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T19:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/443264\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T19:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T19:58:13","slug":"man-shot-by-ice-officer-is-detained-in-texas-with-a-bullet-still-in-his-back-attorneys-office-says-national-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/443264\/","title":{"rendered":"Man shot by ICE officer is detained in Texas with a bullet still in his back, attorney’s office says | National News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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<\/a>, 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

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.<\/a> 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

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

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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 A Venezuelan man shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,153140,294,490,54570,1724,287,2899,14637,3346,1499,6878],"class_list":["post-443264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-austin-texas-ice-shooting-driver-wilber-perez","tag-crime","tag-general-news","tag-immigrant-detention","tag-immigration","tag-politics","tag-prisons","tag-race-and-ethnicity","tag-shootings","tag-u-s-news","tag-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443264","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=443264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}