ICE Shooting of Immigrant in Texas Under Investigation: What to Know

The Department of Homeland Security’s investigative arm is leading a probe into a federal agent’s shooting of an immigrant from Venezuela in Austin, Texas, on Sunday afternoon.

Protesters immediately gathered at the scene to denounce the latest instance of violence involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, with videos on social media showing them paralyzing traffic. Texas law enforcement was deployed to the scene to respond and attempt to disperse the gathering, CBS Austin reported, detaining multiple protesters and firing pepper balls into the crowds.

“I’m very angry about this,” Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat, said in a press conference about the shooting, adding that local police were not involved in the incident, which happened during a traffic stop.

Watson said he was not surprised by ICE’s involvement, given “the nature of ICE and the way ICE is doing its business these days.”

Watson and other Texas Democrats have also called for independent investigations into the incident. James Talarico, who’s campaigning for a U.S. Senate seat, said he was “closely following” the reports and urged a probe that released available footage of the shooting. “Previous incidents have shown that this agency cannot be trusted to report all the facts,” Talarico said in a statement released to the media.

The District Attorney’s Office in Travis County, which includes Austin, requested to partner with city police in the investigation and for the federal government to cooperate in providing access to evidence. It added: “As has occurred in other jurisdictions, it is possible that this incident included violations of state law.”

Rep. Greg Casar (D, Texas) wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and acting ICE director David Venturella seeking a congressional briefing on Sept. 28, and asked the agencies to publicly release all body and dash camera footage from federal officers present at the scene and recorded communications between agents before and after the shooting.

Casar and Watson claimed that ICE activity in Austin has increased in recent weeks amid President Donald Trump’s implementation of his strict anti-immigrant agenda. “It’s a disturbing pattern,” Casar said, “and it has got to stop.”

Here’s what we know so far.

What happened?

The shooting occurred near the intersection of Anderson Square and Research Boulevard in Austin. The Texas Tribune reported that Texas state troopers received a call at around 12:50 p.m. from ICE officials, citing Sheridan Nolen, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Public Safety. The officials reportedly asked for help to pursue a blue Toyota Corolla. 

But Nolen said that before the state troopers arrived, an ICE agent had shot a man, and upon the troopers’ arrival, they treated the driver of the Toyota Corolla. 

Austin-Travis County EMS received notification from city police of a shooting around 12:56 p.m. CT, according to its chief Rob Luckritz. They identified a man who sustained a gunshot wound to the torso, with Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis adding that preliminary information pointed to a “small foot pursuit” happening before the shooting.

Authorities then added that the man was transferred to the Dell Seton Medical Center in stable condition.

What do we know about the people involved?

Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an Austin immigration lawyer who said she had been hired to represent the man who was shot and his wife, identified the man who was shot as a 28-year-old Venezuelan named Wilber Rafael Garces Perez. 

The Tribune reported, citing Lincoln-Goldfinch, that Perez had a work permit and had entered the U.S. legally. According to Lincoln-Goldfinch, Perez was delivering for DoorDash when the shooting occurred.

A DHS spokesperson said, without naming Perez, that the Venezuelan immigrant who was shot “illegally entered our country under the Biden Administration and had a final order of removal.” The man is stable and “in federal custody pending removal,” the spokesperson added.

In videos posted to her social media, Lincoln-Goldfinch said Perez’s wife had not been informed of her husband’s condition since and that she was turned away at the hospital’s premises before being informed several hours later that her husband was already in ICE custody.

“If ICE deports him, the key witness to their shooting disappears,” Rep. Casar posted on social media. “He must not be removed from this country, and he must receive proper medical care.”

As for the ICE agent, who has not been publicly identified, when authorities were asked about his whereabouts, Mayor Watson said: “We do not know that. But my hope would be that an agent that’s involved in an officer-involved shooting would not leave the city; certainly not leave the state.”

Is this part of a pattern?

Sunday’s shooting involving federal immigration agents follows another widely reported shooting in July. In Houston, an ICE agent shot and killed 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, while conducting a traffic stop. ICE said Salgado Araujo was not the intended target of the operation, though the DHS has claimed, without proof, that Salgado Araujo was in the country illegally and attempted to ram ICE vehicles.

Since Trump’s return to the White House, his Administration has deployed federal agents to Democrat-run cities around the country to carry out the President’s strict immigration agenda, and these agents have been involved in multiple high-profile violent incidents. 

Among the first people killed in such operations was 23-year-old U.S. citizen Ruben Ray Martinez. A federal agent fatally shot Martinez in South Padre Island, Texas, on March 15, 2025.