A Venezuelan migrant who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Austin, Texas, said Monday that he remains in severe pain and still has a bullet lodged near his spine. He spoke from a federal detention facility.
The Sunday shooting of 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez has triggered protests and drawn criticism from local officials.
Garces Perez was making a DoorDash delivery when he encountered ICE officers, according to his attorney and the delivery company, which confirmed the details to ABC News.
At a news conference Monday afternoon, attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch said she was finally able to speak with Garces Perez after initially being unable to learn where he had been taken. She said he was transferred to the Pearsall detention facility, about 130 miles from Austin, at roughly 4 a.m. Monday.
Garces Perez’s wife, Elizdar, joined Lincoln-Goldfinch at the news conference as the lawyer described her client’s account of the incident.
Garces Perez also called into the event and recounted what he says happened during Sunday’s confrontation.
Speaking Spanish through an interpreter, he said his condition had not improved because of the gunshot wound and that he had not received the medical care he believes he needs.
He described being in “a lot of pain” and said doctors left the bullet in his body because it was located close to his spine.
According to Garces Perez, the encounter began while he was completing a DoorDash delivery.
He said an SUV pulled alongside him and appeared to try to strike his vehicle. At first, he believed he was dealing with an aggressive driver, but he later realized the people inside were ICE officers. Garces Perez said he asked whether he could pull over so they could detain him, but the officers refused and sideswiped his car. He said he made a U-turn while looking for a place to stop, after which the SUV hit him again and officers opened fire.
Garces Perez said the officers did not initially instruct him to stop and did not activate their emergency lights or siren.
He said the lights and sirens were switched on only after the vehicles had made contact.
Garces Perez said he does not know how many shots were fired, although he felt at least one bullet strike him. He also alleged that the officers did not immediately provide assistance after he was wounded.
He said one officer entered his vehicle and shut it off by force. Garces Perez recalled telling the officer that he was in intense pain and felt he might lose consciousness before emergency medical personnel arrived.
Lincoln-Goldfinch also challenged an initial Department of Homeland Security account, which said Garces Perez was shot during a foot chase. Her client disputes that description.
“There was no foot chase,” Garces Perez said, maintaining that he remained inside the vehicle until officers forced him to get out.
In a statement posted Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security said Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the FBI, was leading the investigation into the officer-involved shooting of a Venezuelan national during a law enforcement operation in Austin. The statement described him as an undocumented immigrant who entered the country under the Biden administration and had a final removal order.
DHS said the man was in stable condition and remained in federal custody while awaiting removal. The agency added that the investigation was ongoing and that further information would be released as it became available.
In a post on X, Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garces Perez was legally in the United States and had applied for asylum.
ABC News said it contacted ICE for additional comment.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said in a statement he is “very angry and extremely disappointed that a person was shot on the streets of Austin by ICE.”
“While I’m angry and disappointed, I’m not surprised. This has happened in other cities. With the rogue nature of ICE and the chaos we’re seeing fomented by ICE, there’s no reason to be surprised. Austinites have a right to know what happened and they have a right to feel safe in their community,” he wrote on X.
A video obtained by ABC News shows the moments after Garces Perez was shot. Taken by a witness and provided to a local city councilmember, the video shows him sitting hunched over in the driver’s seat of a blue sedan as ICE officers surround the car.
The man can be heard saying in Spanish that he was shot because he did not “brake.” Later in the video, the man is seen handcuffed while officers cut his shirt, exposing a gunshot wound on his back.
ICE officials were conducting license plate checks to carry out their enforcement operations when they had a positive match on the vehicle registered to Garces Perez, who had an order to be deported, a law enforcement source also told ABC News.
The Department of Homeland Security has not given a full accounting of what occurred on Sunday and has not said whether the officers were wearing body-worn cameras during the incident.
An Austin city councilmember told ABC News that city police were not permitted to conduct a crime scene investigation.
“The crime scene was entirely controlled by ICE … HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, as well as state police, Department of Public Safety, and so the city police were not being permitted to conduct a crime scene investigation,” Austin Councilmember Mike Siegel told ABC News.
The councilmember told ABC News that he is working with city officials to ensure that the ICE officer who allegedly shot the individual is not allowed to leave Texas.
ABC News’ Armando Garcia contributed to this report.
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