A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed a Mexican national Tuesday morning in Houston, according to a spokesperson with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE.
In a statement to Houston Public Media, the spokesperson said the shooting occurred at around 6:50 a.m. Tuesday during a "targeted enforcement operation." ICE identified the man who died as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, saying he was from Mexico and did not have legal status in the U.S.
Federal officials claimedAraujo attempted to evade arrest.
"From information we are receiving, he rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, 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," the ICE spokesperson said.
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Araujo was transported to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, according to ICE. It was not immediately clear whether any federal agents were injured.
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is calling for a “full federal” and “independent” investigation. They are also asking the Houston Police Department to investigate the incident in Houston’s East End, a predominantly Latino area.
In a virtual press conference Tuesday evening, LULAC President Ramon Palomares said the organization is deeply concerned and alarmed by the shooting.
“This is not an isolated event across the nation,” Palomares said. “We have seen a pattern of ICE involvement in shootings and excessive use of force. Each time, a family is left without answers and a community is left in fear.”
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LULAC leaders are also disputing ICE’s account of the incident and are calling for all evidence to be preserved for a thorough investigation of the shooting.
Calls for transparency and an independent investigation also came from local elected officials and other civil rights organizations, including FIEL Houston and the Texas Civil Rights Project.
“What we’re demanding at LULAC is to preserve and release all evidence: body cam, dash cam, bystander video, dispatch logs, everything that would be available to us and should be available to the community to conduct this investigation,” Palomares said.
Lifelong Houston resident Janie Torres said she lives in the neighborhood near where the shooting occurred and rushed to the scene when she saw the news on social media.
"I'm Latina, I'm Chicana, but that could easily be me, going down the street on the next block over," Torres said. "None of the Hispanic community should be having to have fear of going out, going to the store, going out for the weekend with their family. ... We shouldn't have to be doing that in fear. We shouldn't have to."
The ICE spokesperson said the FBI had taken over the investigation into the shooting. According to a spokesperson for the FBI’sHouston Field Office, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security is leading an investigation into the shooting and FBI Houston is leading an investigation into the “potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer.”
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