Federal prosecutors in Texas have charged Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a Venezuelan delivery driver who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent earlier this month, with assaulting a federal officer, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
Prosecutors allege that the 28-year-old struck an ICE officer with his vehicle’s side mirror while driving away from an attempted arrest. He has been charged with assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer.
The allegations appear in an eight-page affidavit prepared by an agent with the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations division. The document supports a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas and is based in part on an interview with one of the two ICE officers involved in the Sept. 20 encounter, identified as D.F. The second officer, L.G., fired the shots, but his account was not included in the filing.
According to D.F., the agents began tracking Garces Perez after running his license plate and discovering that an immigration judge had issued a final order for his removal from the United States.
The officers were traveling in separate vehicles and boxed in Garces Perez’s car, with one vehicle positioned ahead of him and the other behind. The affidavit says they approached and ordered him out. Garces Perez allegedly refused and instead asked L.G. whether he could move the vehicle and park it so someone else could retrieve it.
The affidavit states that about a minute later, Garces Perez suddenly rolled up the window and began driving away. L.G. reportedly tried
to move clear of the vehicle, but the driver’s-side mirror struck him in the torso as the car pulled away, according to the filing.
The court documents say the encounter escalated within moments as Garces Perez left the scene.
The filing contains three still images from D.F.’s body-camera footage. They show L.G. standing beside the vehicle and appearing to step aside as it moves forward:
Justice Department
Garces Perez then allegedly took the agents on a high-speed chase through commercial and residential streets, the affidavit says. D.F. called for assistance but eventually lost sight of the vehicles. L.G. later phoned him and reported that Garces Perez had tried to hit him with the car and that he had fired his weapon. L.G. was not wearing a body camera.
The HSI agent who authored the affidavit also interviewed Garces Perez. The Venezuelan driver told investigators that one of the agents had hit his car during the initial stop, a claim D.F. disputed. Garces Perez acknowledged that he did not get out when ordered, saying he understood he was about to be arrested and asked L.G. to let him park so his wife could pick up the vehicle.
He also confirmed that he drove away. According to his account, the brief pursuit ended when an SUV struck his car, causing it to spin around.
Garces Perez told investigators that, after the vehicle was forced to a stop, he remembered L.G. firing into the rear passenger-side window. A bullet struck him in the upper back. He said L.G. then opened the driver’s door, removed the keys from the ignition and instructed him to remain inside while waiting for an ambulance, according to the affidavit.
The bullet became lodged near Garces Perez’s spine and had still not been removed as of last week. He remains in ICE custody at a detention facility in Texas. His attorney and Democratic lawmakers say he is experiencing severe pain and requires surgery.
A federal judge last week ordered Garces Perez to appear in person at a hearing on Wednesday, Sept. 30. The order effectively prevents ICE from deporting him before that proceeding.
