{"id":3502,"date":"2026-07-10T20:27:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T20:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=3502"},"modified":"2026-07-10T20:27:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T20:27:23","slug":"men-who-witnessed-deadly-houston-shooting-say-ice-statement-is-false-attorney-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=3502","title":{"rendered":"Men who witnessed deadly Houston shooting say ICE statement is false, attorney says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federal officials’ version of what led\u00a0<\/em>to the fatal shooting of a man in Houston during an immigration operation this week doesn’t match that of three men detained during the incident, an attorney who spoke with them says.<\/p>\n

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said an agent opened fire Tuesday after\u00a0Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, rammed a law enforcement vehicle and refused to follow verbal commands during a traffic stop that was part of a “targeted operation.”<\/p>\n

But the three men who were detained told attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra the version of events presented by ICE is false: “At no point did they use the van to ram into the ICE agents and at no point were these ICE agents’ lives ever in any danger,” the lawyer said in a\u00a0video posted to his Instagram.<\/p>\n

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Salgado Araujo was shot after agents in two black SUVs without apparent law enforcement markings pursued his white work van, surveillance videos obtained by CNN and the League of United Latin American Citizens show.<\/p>\n

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Police lights flashed on in one unmarked ICE vehicle, and the work van slowed before ICE vehicles rammed into it, Balderas-Ibarra told\u00a0The Washington Post, citing the detained men. An ICE agent then exited his vehicle and opened fire almost immediately, striking Salgado Araujo, the lawyer said. CNN has reached out to him and ICE for comment.<\/p>\n

Salgado Araujo was not the target of the operation, a source familiar with preliminary details about the incident told CNN.<\/p>\n

Complete details of the deadly encounter remain unclear as questions about how it escalated, calls for an independent investigation and community outcry mount. The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office are now investigating.<\/p>\n

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The case marks the first fatal shooting involving federal immigration agents since US citizens\u00a0Ren\u00e9e Good\u00a0and\u00a0Alex Pretti\u00a0were killed in ICE operations in Minneapolis. It again raises questions about who is\u00a0targeted\u00a0by a nationwide immigration enforcement push the Trump administration\u00a0says\u00a0aims to remove dangerous criminals from the US.<\/p>\n

Before Tuesday’s encounter, Texas authorities had notified ICE about two people \u2013 neither of them Salgado Araujo \u2013 believed to be in the United States without legal status and traveling in a white van, according to the source.<\/p>\n

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On Tuesday, “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,” a Homeland Security official told CNN.<\/p>\n

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The van was registered to Salgado Araujo, whom agents determined to be in the country illegally, the source said.<\/p>\n

When ICE agents tried to stop Salgado Araujo, he rammed their vehicle, resulting in an officer firing his weapon in self-defense, the agency said.<\/p>\n

Salgado Araujo’s family disputes the federal government’s account and says the hardworking father of three would have stopped if he had known the car following him belonged to ICE.<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security has not released footage of the shooting, and none of the agents involved had been issued body-worn cameras, a spokesperson said. Body cameras have been deployed to more than half of ICE field offices, with the rest expected to get them within 60 days, an agency spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

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CNN has asked DHS about any available dash cam footage.<\/p>\n

The absence of official footage in the Houston shooting has renewed questions about\u00a0transparency\u00a0and accountability in immigration enforcement operations months after a\u00a0federal judge in Chicago\u00a0ordered immigration agents involved in enforcements there to wear and activate their body cameras.<\/p>\n

Now, in Houston and beyond, video circulating online of a black SUV following the white van and of a man on the ground as a federal agent kneels over him are fueling anger.<\/p>\n

Investigations are underway<\/h3>\n

The DHS Office of the Inspector General is now leading an investigation into the shooting, according to ICE. The FBI’s Houston field office is also investigating the alleged assault on a federal law enforcement officer.<\/p>\n

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The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is pursuing its own investigation and independently collecting information on the shooting, though “access to key evidence remains under federal control,” spokesperson Rafael Lemaitre said.<\/p>\n

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