The Mexican man living in the United States who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was not the person federal authorities were targeting in the Houston operation, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said Thursday.
The Democratic congresswoman, whose district includes the Houston neighborhood where the shooting occurred, said acting ICE Director David Venturella told her the agency had confirmed that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo “was not a target.”
Salgado Araujo was a home builder who had lived in the United States for more than 35 years, had no criminal record and was nearing the end of the long process of obtaining legal status when he was killed early Tuesday morning, according to his family.
“We have to do something. This is just one more death too many,” Garcia said in an interview with MS Now. “And if we have to get independent people from the outside to come and look at it, we should do that.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not immediately return an email seeking comment late Thursday.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said earlier that federal officers were conducting a targeted operation to arrest a person in the country without legal status when they tried to stop a car driven by Salgado Araujo. The agency said Salgado Araujo rammed the ICE vehicle and that a federal officer fired a weapon in self-defense.
Asked whether ICE agents were specifically targeting Salgado Araujo, DHS said earlier Thursday that officers were conducting surveillance on a property where they had previously observed two white vans.
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“On July 7, officers were approximately to arrive at the target’s address when they observed a white truck carrying an individual who resembled the target. Officers then began to stop the vehicle,” the department said.
The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents were not wearing body cameras, and few photos or videos surrounding the shooting have emerged publicly in the days after the standoff, unlike other deaths involving federal immigration officers.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that agents at the scene in Houston had not yet been given body cameras, which it blamed on Democrats and a record government shutdown fueled by President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration campaign.
U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee, a Democrat who also represents Houston, said if customers don’t have the devices, it’s because Trump and Republican lawmakers don’t want them to.
“Houston is done accepting excuses from an agency that has more money than it knows what to do with and still cannot manage basic accountability,” he said in a statement.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office said it will conduct an investigation into the shooting. Bureau spokesman Rafael Lemaitre said the bureau is consulting with local prosecutors in Minneapolis, where federal agents shot and killed two American citizens, to see how they handle investigations with federal immigration agents.
“Although access to key evidence remains under federal control, we are following investigative methods available to us and will conduct a review of any information we gather that is within our reach,” Lemaitre said in an email statement.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested three men, including Salgado Araujo’s brother, during the deadly traffic stop, according to Juan Proano, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, who has been communicating with their families.
Proanio told The Associated Press that LULAC has not yet obtained video footage that clearly shows what happened during the moments of the shooting and has offered a $5,000 reward for information from witnesses. He added that the location of Salgado Araujo’s truck and ICE vehicles hampered the security camera footage reviewed by LULAC.
“This will make it more difficult to find the truth in all of this,” he added.
ICE agents involved in the incident are expected to receive body-worn cameras within the next 60 days, the Department of Homeland Security said.
In the wake of the fatal shootings of Renee Judd and Alex Peretti in Minneapolis, Democrats have refused to fund ICE and Border Patrol without making changes to those operations designed to increase accountability and transparency. Republicans in Congress ultimately passed legislation to fund only ICE and CBP for three years.
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