Man who was killed by ICE in Texas never ‘weaponized’ his vehicle, witnesses say | Texas

Three men who were in a van when federal immigration officers shot and killed a man in Houston, Texas, strongly dispute the Trump administration’s version of events this week and are being pressured to sign deportation orders, according to their lawyers and lawmakers.

The three men arrested by immigration officials during the incident denied that the driver of the vehicle, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, “weaponized” his vehicle against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. They also told their attorneys that an ICE officer was never in front of the van and that the shot that killed Salgado came from the “sides” of the vehicle.

Early Tuesday morning, Salgado, his brother and two men were on their way to work in Houston when they were shot and killed by ICE officials during a “targeted enforcement operation.” This is the latest attack by federal immigration officials during the Trump administration’s aggressive anti-immigrant campaign.

Texas attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, who represents the two men in the van, said at a news conference Friday that his clients “reiterated that there was never an agent standing in front of the vehicle nor was any agent placed in the line of danger.” Men’s claims came first reported By Washington Post.

The latest revelation comes as family members, local officials, lawmakers and civil rights groups are desperately trying to learn more about Salgado’s death. Further verification may be difficult to obtain: The ICE officers involved in the incident were not wearing body cameras and did not have dash cameras in their cars, Representative Sylvia Garcia of Texas told a press conference Friday after speaking with ICE’s acting director, David Venturella.

Democrats have repeatedly called for ICE and other homeland security officials to wear body cameras during detention operations after U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed by immigration officials during the Trump administration’s January escalation in Minneapolis.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has repeatedly alleged that Salgado “weaponized” his vehicle and attempted to hit an ICE officer, which led to the officer firing his weapon. This week’s allegations echoed similar statements from DHS officials that have previously been used to justify other ICE-related shootings. Videos of other shootings have called into question the accuracy of DHS’s statements.

“Dangerous criminals — whether illegal aliens or U.S. citizens — are attacking law enforcement and weaponizing their vehicles to attack law enforcement,” a DHS spokesperson said this week. Salgado, who has been living in the USA for about 35 years, has no criminal history.

District Attorney Sean Teare, who said the Harris district attorney’s office opened an investigation into the shooting this week, said his agency “was not invited to the scene” but hoped the DHS inspector general’s office investigating the shooting would share information with his department. The FBI is investigating whether Salgado assaulted ICE officers. The FBI earlier this year refused to share information with local Minnesota authorities about three separate shootings, including Good’s and Pretti’s.

Salgado’s family and lawmakers requested an independent investigation earlier this week, citing inaccurate and contradictory information previously provided by DHS.

“We will go to the ends of the earth to collect all the evidence so that eventually the public will know what happened,” Teare said.

Salgado’s family said at a press conference this week that Tuesday began like any other day for their father: Salgado woke up early, got into his minivan and drove to the construction site, picking up three other co-workers, including one of his brothers.

However, as they drove towards the area, two unmarked IYM vehicles began following the four men. According to reporting by the New York Times and Rep. Garcia, Salgado and his brother were not supposed to be ICE’s arrest targets, but rather someone ICE believed was in the van Salgado was driving.

A DHS spokesperson said “officers had nearly arrived at the target’s address when they spotted a white van occupied by a person resembling the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop.”

Since there is no public video of the actual shooting, it is unclear what happened next when ICE officers tried to stop the van. The Guardian contacted a grocery store in the area with security cameras that likely recorded footage of the incident. A store employee said in Spanish that the company’s corporate office did not allow the images to be shared with the press and that they had already turned the images over to investigators. (It’s unclear whether they gave the images to DHS agents or Harris County officials.)

DHS said in a statement that Salgado “crashed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to comply with 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.”

According to a written statement from one of the men reviewed by the Washington Post, “there were no police officers in front or behind the vehicle. They were to the sides.”

There was now “conflicting testimony,” Garcia said Friday, adding that there was no damage to the vehicles at the scene of the shooting.

In the video shared on social media, Salgado is seen lying on the ground with two ICE officers on the ground and screaming, covered in blood. Salgado, who was taken to the hospital, died. His son said he learned of his family’s death from social media posts.

The three men, who can be seen handcuffed and on the ground in bystander footage of the immediate aftermath of the shooting, are currently in custody at the Montgomery processing center, a privately run ICE facility in Conroe, Texas. The men were reportedly pressured to sign self-exportation orders for deportation from the United States.

“Given the magnitude and implications of this case, my clients may be pressured to sign documents regarding their voluntary separation,” said attorney Balderas-Ibarra. “It is extremely important that we maintain the integrity of this investigation; if they are deported, everything goes out the window.”

DHS has come under constant scrutiny from public officials and communities across the country for the aggressive arrest, detention, and deportation tactics the Trump administration has used to carry out its “mass deportation” campaign. There have been at least 10 fatal shootings by federal immigration authorities since January 2025.