Man shot by ICE moved from hospital to detention center ‘with a bullet in his back,’ lawyer tells CNN

CNN

By Eduardo Cuevas, Ed Lavandera, Ashley Killough, Priscilla Alvarez, Boer Deng, Andy Rose, Julianna Bragg, CNN

Austin, Texas (CNN) — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and wounded a man from Venezuela who was working as a DoorDash driver Sunday in Texas’ capital, city officials confirmed, with protests erupting at the scene against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Federal authorities have not said what led up to the shooting, which is at least the third involving immigration agents in Texas since the start of Trump’s second term, with criticism of heavy-handed tactics on the rise and polls showing most Americans against the president’s immigration policies.

Two months ago, ICE agents fatally shot a Mexican man during a traffic stop in Houston. Two teens – US citizens – said they were attacked earlier this month by ICE agents in Alamo, Texas, after they recorded an immigration stop, with video showing one being repeatedly punched in the head while pinned to the pavement. Last month, ICE officer Christian Castro was charged with lying about his shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minnesota and is currently free on bond after pleading not guilty.

“This is a pattern – it’s a disturbing pattern – and it’s got to stop,” said U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, a Democrat who represents part of Austin.

The man shot Sunday in Austin was identified as Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, by Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an immigration lawyer who said she is representing his family.

Officials said Garces Perez was shot in the torso just before 1 p.m. Sunday in North Austin. DoorDash told CNN Garces Perez was working as a dasher at the time of the shooting.

Garces Perez was released from the hospital Sunday and is now detained in an infirmary at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, more than 100 miles away from Austin, Lincoln-Goldfinch told CNN on Monday.

“They sent him to (an ICE facility) with a bullet in his back without pain medication, and he slept overnight in a processing center without a bed,” she said.

Speaking through a translator on the phone during a Monday afternoon news conference, Garces Perez said, “I am not doing well due to the gunshot wound, and I have not received the medical attention that I require.”

He said doctors did not remove the bullet because it was close to his spine, adding he is still in a significant amount of pain.

The attorney said she used “back channels” to determine where Garces Perez is being held. ICE recently removed the location of detainees with final removal orders from an online database, complicating their attorneys’ efforts to prevent their deportation, The Associated Press reported Monday.

So far, the Department of Homeland Security has not given a detailed account of what happened.

ICE officers were conducting targeted immigration enforcement operations Sunday based on license plate checks when they came across a vehicle registered to Garces Perez, who had a deportation order, according to a source familiar with the incident.

Officers conducted a vehicle stop and questioned Garces Perez, who had a brief exchange with the officers before he fled the scene in his car, the source said. It is unclear if Garces Perez’ car came to a complete stop or was moving during the initial exchange. The shooting happened later.

Garces Perez said through the translator the SUV tried to hit him, which he originally interpreted as an aggressive driver. When he realized ICE agents were in the vehicle, Garces Perez said he asked to pull over to be detained but the federal official denied his request.

When he attempted a U-turn to park the car, the SUV ran into his car and he was then shot, Garces Perez said, according to the translator.

Garces Perez said after he was shot, an officer went into his car and “forcibly turned it off.” He told the officer he was in pain and felt like he was going to pass out shortly before EMTs arrived.

CNN reached out to DHS for comment on the circumstances of the incident.

The shooting was captured on video by Heidi Clark, who was livestreaming to Facebook while driving down Research Boulevard. As she neared the intersection with Anderson Square, her monologue was interrupted by loud tire screeches.

“Woah!” Clark said as she turned her phone camera toward the scene and a person could be seen in the distance running out of an SUV toward a blue sedan. Her surprise quickly turned to shock as gunfire broke out.

“Oh my God!” said Clark. “Holy f**kin’ sh*t, dude!”

Garces Perez is later seen sitting on the ground in video obtained by ABC News, hands handcuffed behind him, his shirt cut open to reveal what appears to be a gaping gunshot wound in his back.

Dispute over legal status

Garces Perez is an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela who had a final order for removal, the Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X. He was stable and “in federal custody pending removal,” DHS said.

Homeland Security Investigations, DHS’ investigative branch, will lead the investigation with assistance from the FBI, the post said without providing further details.

However, Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garces Perez legally entered the country through CBP One, a Biden-era program, to seek asylum. He was allowed into the country and issued a work permit while he went through immigration proceedings. The Trump administration has since ended the program.

“He had a pending court date, and the immigration court changed his court date without notifying him,” resulting in her client receiving a removal order in absentia, Lincoln-Goldfinch said.

She said Garces Perez was fleeing from the pursuit on Sunday because all he knew was an unmarked “big black truck” had rammed his vehicle twice. Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis told reporters Sunday there may have been a foot chase with the ICE agent but cautioned the information was preliminary and said she had not yet been briefed by federal partners.

“There was not a foot chase as they said that there was,” Lincoln-Goldfinch told CNN. “He didn’t even know he was dealing with ICE until he was shot.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN troopers were requested for assistance in a vehicle pursuit, but the officer-involved shooting took place before they made it to the scene.

Once they arrived, troopers immediately began performing medical treatment on the driver alongside partner law enforcement officers, the agency said.

DA asks for independent investigation

Video of the aftermath showed a blue Toyota Corolla with damage to the front passenger door and at least two apparent bullet holes in the right rear window, according to footage shared by CNN affiliate KVUE and several witness videos taken at the scene.

The Travis County District Attorney’s office has requested an independent investigation of the shooting, saying in a statement Sunday the DA’s office and the Austin Police Department should be “co-equal partners in the investigation.”

“We further request cooperation from the federal government in giving us access to the evidence. As has occurred in other jurisdictions, it is possible that this incident included violations of state law,” the statement added.

Austin’s Democratic Mayor Kirk Watson also said an investigation would take place involving the Texas Rangers and Austin police.

“While I’m unhappy and I’m angry about it, I’m not surprised at all,” Watson said. “It’s happened in other cities with the nature of ICE and the way ICE is doing its business these days.”

“I see ICE following their same PR pattern in this case,” Lincoln-Goldfinch told CNN on Monday. “There is no evidence to be seen that Wilber was doing anything but driving his car down the road.”

CNN has reached out to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s office for comment.

The Trump administration has surged immigration agents to several Democrat-run American cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis. Federal officers have fatally shot at least four people, including two American citizens, during operations across the country.

Negative reaction to ICE actions from Latino communities has resulted in a noticeable drop in support for the enforcement policies in the demographic group that was key to President Trump’s 2024 election victory.

About seven in 10 Latinos said the administration was doing too much to deport immigrants in a July poll by the Pew Research Center, with a third of Hispanic voters who cast a ballot for Trump in 2024 now saying the administration’s policies have been harmful to Hispanics.

The political reality as midterms approach was demonstrated starkly last week when Florida Rep. María Elvira Salazar – a Republican and strong supporter of President Trump generally – released a campaign ad addressing Trump directly.

“The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today,” she said. Salazar represents a district that favored Trump by 15 percentage points in the last presidential election.

For decades, Democrats in Texas have struggled to get Hispanic voters to turn up at the polls and for those who do, the trend over the last 10 years has been shifting away from the party, according to a voting analysis published in 2024.

Though a majority of Hispanic voters still vote blue, 40% voted Republican in the state’s gubernatorial race in 2022, and the party won by as much as 17 points in House races considered competitive by UnidosUS, a Hispanic civil rights organization. In 2024, Trump managed to flip four counties in the Rio Grande Valley that had long voted Democrat and all have Hispanic populations of over 80%.

While Texas is a Republican-led state, its capital city, Austin, leans heavily blue.

Representatives from the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Latino civil rights organization founded in Texas, the NAACP, county commissioners, members of Congress and others held a news conference in Austin Monday afternoon.

Speakers lined up in support of Garces Perez and called for accountability for ICE.

US Rep. Lloyd Doggett told Austin residents to continue speaking out and “carry the protest to the polls.”

He also encouraged people to protest using both the Mexican and American flags.

“I want to see this protest and our demand for action wrapped in the American flag, because what could be more un-American than a secret police force that is out preying on residents of our communities?” Doggett said. “We need to reject that, and we need to reject the un-Americanism that is reflected in these terrible policies.”

At least 20 people have been shot by on-duty ICE and Customs and Border Patrol agents during the second Trump administration, eight fatally, prior to Sunday, according to a CNN analysis.

Casar told reporters the city has seen an ICE surge come to Austin, particularly in north-central Austin, where Sunday’s shooting occurred.

“ICE needs to get out of our city and start telling people the truth,” Casar said. “We need the facts in this case to really understand what fully happened, but what we are seeing from ICE in Texas and across the country is unacceptable.”

Casar noted the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, in which the anti-ICE protesters were originally depicted as “domestic terrorists” by DHS officials despite videos appearing to show them moving away from agents who opened fire.

DHS turned over some evidence to state officials in July but still has not released investigative findings in those shootings.

Protesters gather near the scene

Hours after the shooting, dozens of protesters gathered near the site of the shooting at a busy intersection beside a towering highway overpass in Sunday’s 95-degree heat.

The protesters lined up on one side, some bearing anti-ICE signs and Mexican flags, shouting slogans as traffic in the area slowed to a crawl while uniformed officers tried to contain the crowds.

“I’ve lived in Austin all my life, but from what I’ve been seeing right now, I’ve never felt more betrayed,” Jaasiel Avilva, a 22-year-old Army veteran and son of Mexican immigrants, told CNN as the raucous protest unfolded around him Sunday on the very spot where Garces Perez was shot earlier that day.

“It’s just domestic terrorism,” he added.

Janney Olvera, 13, told CNN affiliate KEYE she and her mother went to the protest immediately after she finished cheerleading practice. On the side of the road, she held a Mexican flag to honor her family’s Mexican and Guatemalan heritage.

“We’re not getting any justice,” Olvera said. “This is supposed to protect our streets? I don’t think so.”

In response to Sunday’s shooting, LULAC called on Congress to establish independent oversight of immigration, and to guarantee any DHS or ICE official who violates a person’s constitutional rights to be investigated and prosecuted.

“No agency should be the sole judge of its own conduct,” Roman Palomares, LULAC chair and national president, said in a statement. “When the government takes or endangers a life, the Constitution demands due process and accountability, and those protections belong to every person in this country.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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This story was written by Eduardo Cuevas in New York, Julianna Bragg in Denver and Andy Rose in Atlanta with reporting from Ed Lavandera, Ashley Killough and Boer Deng in Austin and Priscilla Alvarez in Washington.

CNN’s Amanda Jackson, Sarah Dewberry, Federica Narcancio and Catherine Shoichet contributed to this report.