Federal officials acknowledged Thursday that the migrant fatally shot by an ICE agent in Texas this week was not the person agents had set out to stop.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, apparently resembled another individual the agency was monitoring, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Officials said he was killed in Houston after allegedly trying to flee a traffic stop by driving his vehicle toward ICE officers.
“After receiving a credible tip from our law enforcement partners, our officers conducted surveillance on a target’s address. Weeks prior to the incident, they noted two white vans at the property,” DHS said in a statement to CBS.
“On July 7, officers were almost at the target’s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop.”
Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) said acting ICE Director David Venturella told her agents believed someone in the van — not Salgado Araujo — was subject to a final order of removal, though he did not disclose that person’s name.
DHS said Tuesday that Salgado Araujo failed to comply with orders to pull over and then tried to ram an ICE officer with his vehicle, prompting the officer to shoot him in what officials described as self-defense.
The ICE officers involved were not equipped with body cameras at the time of the shooting.
Bystander footage from the scene showed a black vehicle positioned at an angle near a white van with its doors open, while a bleeding, handcuffed man lay on the ground shaking and groaning audibly.
At least three other men were seen handcuffed in the footage, one of whom Salgado Araujo’s family identified as his brother.
Salgado Araujo lived in the US for 35 years and was close to obtaining his legal status, his loved ones claimed, adding that the father of three had his own business as a homebuilder and had no criminal record.
Ronaldo Salgado, the oldest son, described Salgado Araujo as a quiet man who left for work at sunrise and loved to pet his dog and sit on his porch while listening to music.
“That’s how I want the world to know my father,’ Salgado, a teacher, said.
“Not as someone who got shot and killed, but as a family man, a man who understood that good things come to those who put in hard work.”
DHS’s Inspector General’s Office was investigating the shooting, the department said Tuesday.
On Thursday, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said his office was also “pursuing investigative avenues available to us and will conduct a review of any information we collect within our reach.”
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