An ICE officer shot and seriously wounded a Venezuelan man Sunday afternoon as he was delivering food in Austin, Texas, his lawyer said.
The man was taken to a local hospital and was “in serious but stable condition” after being shot in the torso, Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Robert Luckritz said at a news conference earlier.
00:52
Gunshot wound visible on man’s back after ICE shooting
00:0000:00
The White House referred NBC News to the Department of Homeland Security for comment. A spokesperson for the DHS, the federal agency to which Immigration and Customs Enforcement belongs, said in a statement late Sunday that the man was stable and was in federal custody pending removal from the U.S.
Immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch identified him as Wilber Rafael Garcés Perez, 28, and said he was an asylum seeker who entered the country through a parole program.
Lincoln-Goldfinch told NBC News she learned Monday morning that Garcés Perez was being held in immigration custody at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas.
According to Lincoln-Goldfinch’s office, there was still a bullet lodged in Garcés Perez’s back. Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garcés Perez told her he had not been given him pain medicine and that he was being interrogated.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Lincoln-Goldfinch’s statements.
The attorney said Garcés Perez’s wife has legal status and has not been able to speak with him since the shooting.
“Today at 12:30, Wilber called his wife to tell her that he had been shot,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said in an interview late Sunday. “And he was yelling in agony, and the call cut off. That was all she knew.”
The DHS spokesperson said Garcés Perez entered the country illegally under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal, adding that Homeland Security Investigations, with help from the FBI, will lead an investigation into the shooting.
A senior administration official told NBC News on Monday that Garcés Perez did not have a criminal history beyond being in the country illegally.
The shooting occurred around 1 p.m. in North Austin.
Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Sheridan Nolen said the agency received a request for assistance from ICE for a vehicle pursuit involving a blue Toyota Corolla.
A social media video verified by NBC News captures the sound of tires screeching followed by a person exiting a dark-colored SUV as a blue sedan is stopped next to it, both vehicles facing one another.
At least three gunshots are heard as the person approaches the sedan and runs up to it as it slowly lurches forward. The video shows the person standing next to the sedan’s driver’s side as it stops in front of an intersection. The sedan also appears to be damaged on the passenger side.
The shooting occurred before DPS troopers arrived at the scene, Nolen said.
“Once they arrived, DPS Troopers immediately began assisting partner law enforcement agencies in performing medical treatment on the driver of the Toyota Corolla,” she said in a statement.
Lincoln-Goldfinch, who is representing Garcés Perez, said lawyers for the hospital where he was treated indicated he had been released, though she wasn’t sure at the time to whom.
Lincoln-Goldfinch said she was with his wife at the hospital earlier, hoping to get information on his condition, but they were escorted from the premises.
“We not only were lied to and told that he wasn’t there, but we were thrown off the hospital grounds by several officers who treated us as trespassers,” she said.
Leave a Reply