Men who witnessed deadly Houston shooting say ICE statement is false, attorney says

(CNN) — Federal officials’ version of what led to the fatal shooting of a man in Houston during an immigration operation this week doesn’t match that of three men detained during the incident, an attorney who spoke with them says.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said an agent opened fire Tuesday after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, rammed a law enforcement vehicle and refused to follow verbal commands during a traffic stop that was part of a “targeted operation.”

But the three men who were detained told attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra the version of events presented by ICE is false: “At no point did they use the van to ram into the ICE agents and at no point were these ICE agents’ lives ever in any danger,” the lawyer said in a video posted to his Instagram.

Salgado Araujo was shot after agents in two black SUVs without apparent law enforcement markings pursued his white work van, surveillance videos obtained by CNN and the League of United Latin American Citizens show.

Police lights flashed on in one unmarked ICE vehicle, and the work van slowed before ICE vehicles rammed into it, Balderas-Ibarra told The Washington Post, citing the detained men. An ICE agent then exited his vehicle and opened fire almost immediately, striking Salgado Araujo, the lawyer said. CNN has reached out to him and ICE for comment.

Salgado Araujo was not the target of the operation, a source familiar with preliminary details about the incident told CNN.

Complete details of the deadly encounter remain unclear as questions about how it escalated, calls for an independent investigation and community outcry mount. The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office are now investigating.

The case marks the first fatal shooting involving federal immigration agents since US citizens Renée Good and Alex Pretti were killed in ICE operations in Minneapolis. It again raises questions about who is targeted by a nationwide immigration enforcement push the Trump administration says aims to remove dangerous criminals from the US.

Before Tuesday’s encounter, Texas authorities had notified ICE about two people – neither of them Salgado Araujo – believed to be in the United States without legal status and traveling in a white van, according to the source.

On Tuesday, “officers were almost at the target’s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop,” a Homeland Security official told CNN.

The van was registered to Salgado Araujo, whom agents determined to be in the country illegally, the source said.

When ICE agents tried to stop Salgado Araujo, he rammed their vehicle, resulting in an officer firing his weapon in self-defense, the agency said.

Salgado Araujo’s family disputes the federal government’s account and says the hardworking father of three would have stopped if he had known the car following him belonged to ICE.

The Department of Homeland Security has not released footage of the shooting. None of the agents involved had been issued body-worn cameras, a spokesperson said.

Video circulating online of a black SUV following the white van and of a man on the ground as a federal agent kneels over him have fueled anger in Houston and beyond.

Father had sought legal status

Like most days, Salgado Araujo left his home Tuesday to head to Houston’s predominately Hispanic East End to pick up the rest of his construction crew – his brother and two others – before driving north to work on some homes, the family said.

Shortly before 7 a.m., ICE agents tried to stop him, the agency said.

CNN has asked DHS whether immigration enforcement agents identified themselves to Salgado Araujo.

After the shooting, a federal agent on a phone kneels over a wounded man lying face down and moaning in pain beside a white SUV parked near a barbershop, video shows. The right side of the wounded man’s stomach was bleeding, said Juliet Martinez, a Houston resident who recorded the video and shared it with CNN.

“He was screaming for help and screaming that he was in pain,” Martinez recalled. “He yelled, ‘Help me! They shot me!’”

Emergency services were contacted immediately after Salgado Araujo was shot, ICE said in an updated statement Wednesday.

His cause of death was a gunshot wound to the torso and, the manner of death was ruled a homicide, the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences told CNN Thursday. As of Thursday evening, Salgado Araujo’s body had not been returned to the family, his son told CNN.

Salgado Araujo’s son believes his father would have complied with federal agents had he known the unmarked vehicle following him belonged to ICE or another law enforcement agency, Ronaldo Salgado, told CNN.

Salgado Araujo had prepared for the possibility of an encounter with federal immigration authorities, his son said. The father had consulted attorneys and planned to decline signing any documents before calling his wife or son to help secure his release, if ever detained.

He was also “close to obtaining his legal status,” Ronaldo Salgado said. “We dotted every ‘i’, crossed every ‘t,’ filled every document, attended every appointment.”

Salgado Araujo had spent three decades living and working in the US while providing for his family and progressing toward a work permit, his son said, describing him as a private, hardworking family man.

Salgado Araujo did not appear to have a criminal record, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

Investigations are underway

The DHS Office of the Inspector General is now leading an investigation into the shooting, according to ICE. The FBI’s Houston field office is also investigating the alleged assault on a federal law enforcement officer.

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is pursuing its own investigation and independently collecting information on the shooting, though “access to key evidence remains under federal control,” spokesperson Rafael Lemaitre said.

Cases in which a community member dies during an encounter with law enforcement are “the most critical cases to handle properly,” District Attorney Sean Teare told Houston Public Media on Thursday.

“We have got to be able to explain to the community in these cases more than any other that we are above board, that we are transparent, that we are going to get to the bottom of it, whether we like the outcome or not.”

Protecting the investigation’s integrity is his top priority, Teare added.

“We’re going to look at every avenue, and if a state crime was committed, be it a murder, be it a manslaughter, be it tampering with evidence, we are going to investigate it,” Teare said. “And if someone committed that crime, you don’t get to hide behind a badge.”

Texas Democratic lawmakers, activists and Salgado Araujo’s family are demanding a more in-depth investigation, with the civil rights group LULAC offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

LULAC’s Chief Executive Officer Juan Proaño is also asking for the return of Salgado Araujo’s body to his family and the retention of all possible evidence.

Democratic Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Texas suggested escalating the case beyond an independent investigation, if necessary.

“If they can’t do it, we need to go to the commission on civil rights. We need to ask the US Government Accountability Office,” Garcia told CNN. “We should even go to the UN Council on Human Rights.”

The life behind the headlines

Ronaldo Salgado wants the world to remember his father not for how he died but for the life he built as a husband, father and business owner who believed in the American dream.

“He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of ‘Mexican man shot and killed by ICE,’” the son told CNN.

Salgado Araujo met his wife as a teenager in Mexico, his son said. Together, they raised three sons, emphasizing the idea of “education taking us so far in life,” Ronaldo Salgado said. The eldest son became a teacher, while his brothers went into engineering.

His father also built a successful construction business, working on hundreds of homes across the Houston area over three decades, his son said. Salgado Araujo was “known for his work ethic, his fairness, and his willingness to help anyone who needed it,” a GoFundMe organized for the family said.

“I am deeply heartbroken to see that the man who taught me the value of hard work, family values and education will no longer spend an evening on that porch,” Ronaldo Salgado said.

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CNN’s Ashley Killough, Dalia Faheid, Ed Lavandera, Caroll Alvarado and Karina Tsui contributed to this report.