A Venezuelan man was shot by ICE in Austin while doing deliveries. Here’s what we know

(CNN) — A Venezuelan man who was wounded Sunday when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot him is back in the hospital and asking a court to intervene before he can be removed from the country.

The man, identified as 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, was delivering orders for DoorDash at the time of the confrontation, his attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch said. This is the latest shooting incident involving the agency since the Trump administration started its immigration crackdown.

Federal authorities haven’t said what led to the shooting of Garces Perez, who was taken to a hospital Monday evening after earlier being detained at the South Texas ICE Processing Center, according to his attorney. She also filed a petition in federal court Monday asking a judge to block the government from deporting Garces Perez and release him from custody while his case is pending.

The local district attorney called for an independent investigation into what happened.

This is at least the third shooting involving immigration agents in Texas since President Donald Trump started his second term, and is part of a larger trend of shootings by federal agents since stricter immigration enforcement began.

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

Here is what we know so far about the latest shooting:

Venezuelan man shot in North Austin by immigration agent

Garces Perez was driving in North Austin on Sunday when he was shot in the torso just before 1 p.m., officials said.

DoorDash said he was working as a Dasher at the time of the shooting.

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. They told him they were ICE agents and that he was going to be arrested; Garces Perez then fled the scene in his car, the source said.

It is unclear whether Garces Perez’s car came to a complete stop or was moving during the initial exchange. The shooting happened later.

During a news conference Monday, Garces Perez called in from ICE custody and gave his own account of the shooting with the help of an interpreter.

Garces Perez said 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.

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

He 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.

The Department of Homeland Security has not given a detailed account of what happened or responded to CNN’s request for comment on the circumstances of the incident.

Homeland Security Investigations, the agency’s investigative branch, will lead the investigation with assistance from the FBI, DHS said in a post on X without providing further details.

CNN reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on Garces Perez’s account of events.

“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.”

Video of the shooting was also captured by Heidi Clark, who was livestreaming to Facebook while driving down Research Boulevard. As she drove toward the intersection with Anderson Square, loud tire screeches interrupted her as she spoke.

“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.

Video from after the shooting 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.

Garces Perez stable but ‘not doing well’ after gunshot wound, he said

Before returning to the hospital, Garces Perez told reporters Monday that he was “not doing well” and was in a lot of pain, adding that doctors had not removed the bullet because it was too close to his spine.

“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,” his lawyer said.

Garces Perez also relayed, through the interpreter, that he was in a cold room with no bed at the ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, about 100 miles southwest of Austin.

Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas said someone from his office visited Garces Perez on Monday, and reported that ICE was taking him back to the hospital as he was still reporting a lot of pain, he said in a video he posted on X.

Garces Perez has lost movement on the “entire left side of his body,” Lincoln-Goldfinch told CNN’s Erin Burnett Monday evening, which means he could be “facing paralysis.”

Later Monday, Lincoln-Goldfinch said in a video on social media that she was told by a fellow inmate that Garces Perez had been taken to a hospital. She told CNN she didn’t have an update on his condition.

CNN has reached out to DHS about his comments on his injury and the conditions of the processing center.

Video taken after the shooting and obtained by CNN shows Garces Perez sitting on a curb with his hands cuffed behind his back as he’s detained by authorities. His shirt is cut open during the video to reveal what appears to be a gaping gunshot wound in his back.

Differing accounts of legal status by DHS and attorney

DHS and Garces Perez’s attorney have different accounts about his legal status.

DHS said in a post on X that Garces Perez is an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela who had a final order for removal, adding he is stable and “in federal custody pending removal.”

But his attorney said Garces Perez entered the country on an asylum claim, where he was allowed into the country and issued a work permit. He had been protected from deportation by a parole program that included Venezuelans, which the Trump administration ended last year, Lincoln-Goldfinch said.

“He had a pending court date, and the immigration court changed his court date without notifying him,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said, which ended up with Garces Perez receiving a removal order in absentia.

Lincoln-Goldfinch said she used “back channels” to find out 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.

Local district attorney demands independent investigation

The Travis County District Attorney’s office, which covers most of Austin, said in a statement Sunday night that “it is critical that all the facts come to light and that an independent investigation be completed.”

“We are requesting that the Austin Police Department and our office, the Travis County District Attorney, be co-equal partners in the investigation,” the statement said, and asked for access to evidence the federal government has in this case.

The statement is reminiscent of the requests the Hennepin County Attorney’s office has made in Minneapolis regarding the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. DHS turned over some evidence to state officials last July but hasn’t released findings in their investigations.

Austin’s Democratic Mayor Kirk Watson said during a news conference Sunday that is important for the city to be involved in the investigation, adding “Austinites have a right to know what happened.”

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

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

The League of United Latin American Citizens, the Latino civil rights organization founded in Texas, also called on measures to curtail DHS, saying Congress should establish an independent oversight of immigration, and guarantee any DHS or ICE official who violates a person’s constitutional rights will be investigated and prosecuted, they said in a statement Sunday.

“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.”

Protests erupt in reaction to shooting

In the past several months, Texas has been at the center of the debate on immigration enforcement. In July, ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant, in Houston during a traffic stop. ICE agents tried to conduct a traffic stop as part of a “targeted operation” and Salgado Araujo attempted to evade arrest, an agency spokesperson said in a statement to CNN at the time.

Earlier this month, two teens who are US citizens said they were attacked 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. DHS told CNN in a statement at the time “two anti-ICE agitators” refused to follow verbal commands and were detained after “they attempted to obstruct officers conducting a vehicle stop.”

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

Just hours after Garces Perez was shot, protesters gathered near the busy intersection where the shooting took place. Protesters were seen lining the streets, some chanting, some holding Mexican flags.

“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. “It’s just domestic terrorism.”

Janney Olvera, 13, told CNN affiliate KEYE she and her mother went to the protest fresh from finishing cheerleading practice.

“We’re not getting any justice,” Olvera told the outlet as she held a Mexican flag to honor her Mexican and Guatemalan heritage. “This is supposed to protect our streets? I don’t think so.”

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CNN’s Eduardo Cuevas, Ed Lavandera, Ashley Killough, Boer Deng, Julianna Bragg, Amanda Jackson, Sarah Dewberry, Federica Narcancio and Catherine Shoichet contributed to this report.