Houston (AFP) – Witnesses to the fatal shooting of a Mexican man by a US immigration agent in Texas have disputed the official account of events, saying the man never tried to run over the federal officer, their lawyer said Friday. The US Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that Lorenzo Salgado, 52, had been the target of an operation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Houston and had “attempted to evade arrest.” The agency also claimed that Salgado “rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle…and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.”
But Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, an attorney who represents two people who were detained during the operation Salgado was targeted by, said his clients had a different version of events. “They confirmed that at no point was there ever an ICE agent directly in front of the vehicle,” Balderas-Ibarra told a press conference. “They also confirmed that the shots came from the sides, not from the front, which is inconsistent with the ICE agent statement.” Among those detained by ICE during the operation were Salgado’s brother and two construction workers who were with them.
“He had no criminal record, he had been in here in the United States for over 35 years, a business owner,” the attorney said of the slain immigrant, adding: “He had US citizen children. His only crime was that he fit the description of another man that they were looking for.” Democratic Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, who represents the district where the incident occurred, told the same press conference she had spoken with acting ICE director David Venturella. Venturella “confirmed that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was not the target of the operation, nor was his brother, who was a passenger in the vehicle,” Garcia told reporters.
“The director said that ICE was searching for an individual with a final removal order, who officers believed had entered the van, and that they had an administrative warrant.” Garcia also said none of the federal agents were wearing body cameras and that none of the vehicles involved in the traffic stop had recordings of the shooting. Salgado’s death at the hands of federal immigration agents is the first since the January killings in Minneapolis of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both of whom were protesting ICE raids in the face of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. A makeshift memorial for Salgado sprung up at the location of the shooting, with dozens of people visiting the site to pay their respects Friday.
© 2024 AFP
