What happened
An ICE agent on Sunday shot and wounded a Venezuelan man in Austin as he was delivering for DoorDash, according to Texas officials and the 28-year-old man’s wife. The man, identified as Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, was in serious but stable condition after being shot in the torso, officials said at a press conference. More than 100 protesters amassed at the shooting scene.
Perez’s wife said he’d told her on the phone he was shot inside the car. Photos show two apparent bullet holes in the blue Toyota Corolla’s back passenger window, plus a big dent in the front passenger door. The Department of Homeland Security, along with the FBI, is “leading the investigation” into the shooting, DHS said in a statement late Sunday. The agency described Perez as an “illegal alien from Venezuela, who illegally entered our country under the Biden administration.”
Who said what
Videos taken by bystanders show an ICE agent “circling around to the back passenger side” of the Corolla, where he remains as the car “rolls forward slightly” and “three gunshots ring out,” The New York Times said. Perez “appears to be bleeding from a wound to his upper left back” when he’s removed and handcuffed, and “the footage does not show any of the officers providing medical care.”
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“I’m very angry about this,” Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said, but “I’m not surprised at all,” given “the way ICE is doing its business these days.” More than 20 people have been shot by federal immigration agents, mostly in their vehicles and some fatally, during President Donald Trump’s second term.
What next?
Watson and other Austin officials said they expect local police and Texas Rangers to be part of the investigation. Perez’s wife, a legal resident, hasn’t “been permitted to see him” and doesn’t know where he is, her lawyer said.
