Three men who were in a van with Lorenzo Salgado Araujo when he was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Houston say the Department of Homeland Security’s account doesn’t match what they saw. Their lawyer says the men told him Salgado Araujo was shot through a passenger window and that the officer was never threatened. The shooting happened Tuesday during an attempted traffic stop by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Houston.
Who Gets to Tell the Story
The Department of Homeland Security says Salgado Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE agent. DHS has not provided video or other evidence supporting that version of events. That gap matters. The agency is asking the public to trust its word while withholding the kind of evidence that might settle the dispute.
The men in the van were identified by their lawyer as Jose Trinidad Rojas, 51; Daniel Tirado Pantoja, 43; and Victor Salgado, 44, Salgado Araujo’s brother. Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, the immigration attorney on the case, said he interviewed each man separately while they were in ICE custody. He said, “My clients' versions of the events are extremely different different from what ICE agents are saying, or what the agency is saying,” and added that the witnesses “reiterated that at no point was there ever an agent standing in front of the vehicle, nor was an agent at place in the line of danger. That is simply false.”
Balderas-Ibarra also said, “After speaking with these men, I have no doubt that what they’re saying is the truth. I know that these agents — the agency — is going to try to cover it up.” He said images of the van after the shooting appear to show no damage. The men told him no officer was in front of the van or even in danger.
What the Federal Machine Withholds
Federal officials have not released the name of the ICE officer involved. DHS said it will not release the officer’s name because the officer could face threats and violence and the officer’s family could be at risk. DHS also has not responded to requests for other information, including how long the officer has worked for ICE or whether anyone involved in the shooting is on administrative leave.
DHS said officers investigating a tip weeks earlier saw two white vans at the address of a target, and that while heading to that address Tuesday, officers saw a white van and someone inside who resembled the person they were looking for. DHS said the officers involved had not been issued body-worn cameras. No video. No body cameras. No name. Just the apparatus speaking for itself.
Salgado Araujo was a 52-year-old homebuilder who was shot and killed as he was driving his crew to a construction site. His family said he had lived in the U.S. for more than 35 years, had no criminal record and was close to finishing the long process of obtaining legal status when he was killed. AP said the man killed was not the person ICE was seeking to find. Axios reported that the three men in the van dispute the DHS account and that the victim has been identified as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.
Who Pays for the Raid
ICE detained the other three men in the van, and they all told a lawyer that no officer was in front of the van or even in danger. ICE is pressuring the men to self-deport, which would make it harder for them to share their version of events with investigators or others, said Juana Degollado, who said her stepfather Daniel Tirado Pantoja is among the detained men. She said he has no legal permission to live in the U.S. but has no criminal record. Degollado said, “No one in that van had warrants or any legal problem.” DHS said allegations that the men have been pressured to leave the country are “categorically false.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said the acting director of ICE told her officers thought someone in the van, but not Salgado Araujo, had a final order of removal but did not share a name. Garcia also said it was unsurprising that Salgado Araujo drove off when ICE tried to stop his vehicle, given that their vehicles were unmarked and had no lights. She said, “What would you do if you were being followed by someone and the cars were unmarked?”
Local prosecutors were not invited into the investigation by federal officials but have spent the past three days in the Houston neighborhood looking for surveillance footage and talking to witnesses, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said. Teare said anyone with video or other information must share it with his office so the truth about the shooting can be determined. He said, “We will go to the ends of the earth to collect all the evidence, so that we can eventually let the public know what happened.” The FBI is tightly controlling the evidence in the case, but Houston Mayor John Whitmire said he wants a local independent investigation and the police chief will meet with federal investigators next week to see what can be done. Whitmire said, “We recognize that it is a federal police agency that was out of control Tuesday morning.” Houston police do not work with ICE, and the mayor said he found out about the shooting from the media. Salgado Araujo’s family said they found out he was dead through the ICE statement instead of directly from the agency. Garcia said officers kept his belongings and sent him to the hospital where he died without including his name.
The League of United Latin American Citizens offered a $5,000 reward for video or other evidence, but Juan Proaño, the group’s CEO, said the positions of the vehicles mean surveillance cameras in the area were blocked from recording the shooting. Few photos or videos surrounding the shooting have emerged publicly in the days since Salgado Araujo’s death. Salgado Araujo was at least the eighth person to die during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign. No immigration officers have been charged in the killings, and video footage in several previous shootings has contradicted the accounts of federal officers.