Man killed by ICE agents not intended target of immigration arrest, DHS says | Houston
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was killed by federal immigration officers during a traffic stop in Houston this week, was not the intended target of the “enforcement operation,” the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday.
The New York Times reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were searching for two men from Guatemala while trying to stop Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant who has lived in the United States for 35 years. reported.
Salgado Araujo, who went to work early on Tuesday morning, was taking three other people in a white minivan. After the conflict, 3 people were detained. Lawyers announced that one of the three men was the victim’s brother, Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo. New York Times reported He said he was still in an immigration detention center.
In a statement to the Guardian, an unnamed DHS official said officers received a tip from law enforcement partners about their target’s address and had previously seen two white vans on that property.
“On July 7, when officers nearly arrived at the target’s address, they observed a white van occupied by a person resembling the target,” the official said.
The statement does not explain what happened next. Salgado Araujo died at the hospital after being shot in the abdomen, according to local law enforcement. DHS said the officers involved were not wearing body cameras.
ICE agents who stopped Salgado Araujo claimed that he “armed his vehicle with the intention of running over an ICE law enforcement officer,” who then “discharged his weapon in self-defense,” but did not provide evidence to corroborate that statement.
It’s a defense the agency has used in other high-profile cases, including the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis and the shooting of two Venezuelan men in Oregon earlier this year. Video evidence contradicted both of these explanations.
Salgado Araujo’s death will be investigated by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office, according to the agency.
“He did not deserve to die,” Ronaldo Salgado, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s son, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
“This is outrageous to me, and it’s ridiculous to hear that no one in that van was the target of any investigation,” Salgado said. said After the New York Times learned that his father was not actually wanted by federal agents.
Salgado Araujo’s death was the 10th fatal shooting by federal immigration authorities nationwide since the second Trump administration took office, according to public reporting by the Guardian.
Maanvi Singh and José Olivares contributed reporting
