The Department of Justice has charged a Venezuelan immigrant with assault after he was shot by a federal immigration officer during a traffic stop in Austin, Texas.
Wilber Garcés Pérez, who said he was driving for DoorDash when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stopped him on September 20, was sent to a detention center with a bullet still lodged near his spine within hours of the incident, according to his attorney.
An unsealed affidavit signed by a Homeland Security investigator accuses Garcés Pérez of striking an officer in the torso with his car’s side-view mirror before leading agents on what investigators described as a high-speed chase.
The ICE officer, identified only as “L.G.” in the affidavit, was not wearing a body-mounted camera at the time. He shot Garcés Pérez in the back through the back right window of his car. Another officer who was on the scene, identified only as D.F., was wearing a bodycam, but he turned it off during the pursuit.
ICE agents “conducted a law enforcement database” search on Garcés Pérez’s Toyota sedan after noticing it was parked in front of a restaurant with its emergency indicators. The agents “confirmed that a final order of removal had been issued by an immigration judge” against Garcés Pérez, who was registered with the car, according to the affidavit.
After Garcés Pérez returned to his car and started driving, D.F. “activated his emergency lights” but Garcés Pérez “did not pull over and stop his car immediately,” according to the document.
Garcés Pérez pulled over to the shoulder of the road, and L.G.’s unmarked ICE SUV parked diagonally in front of him.
L.G. then approached the driver’s side door near the sideview mirror and D.F. stood beside him.
Garcés Pérez “rolled down his window slightly” as they spoke, and he provided his driver’s license, the filing says. After the officers asked him to step out of the car, Garcés Pérez “ignored the request” and “engaged in a Spanish conversation with L.G. about moving the car and parking it,” the document says.
“The conversational tone was pleasant and not aggressive,” according to the affidavit.
One minute later, Garcés Pérez “abruptly closed the window and drove off,” the filing states.
Officer L.G. “tried to avoid contact with the car” but the “driver’s side-view mirror struck L.G. in his torso as it drove off,” according to the Justice Department.
Garcés Pérez has said that he asked to move his car so that his wife could collect it.
He told reporters last week that he initially believed an unmarked SUV was trying to hit his car, and he continued along his delivery route to avoid what he thought was an aggressive driver.
The SUV then hit his car and turned its police lights on, he said. Officers then blocked him from moving his car to the shoulder of the road, but Garcés Pérez tried to make a loop to park the car in a secure spot, he said.
The affidavit claims Garcés Pérez then led the officers on a “high-speed chase through a commercial and residential area.”
Officers turned on their lights and sirens, and D.F. “lost sight” of L.G. and Garcés Pérez while he was calling for assistance from a dispatcher, according to the document.
“D.F. at that point turned off his body-worn camera,” the filing says.
D.F. tried to call L.G., who didn’t answer. L.G. then called him back and claimed Garcés Pérez “attempted to strike L.G. with his car and L.G. had fired his pistol,” the affidavit says.
Garcés Pérez was initially sent to a hospital. But four hours later, with a bullet still lodged near his spine, Garcés Pérez was moved to the South Texas ICE Processing Center, where he writhed in pain without a bed or medication, according to his lawyer.
He was moved to another hospital after complaining of paralysis.
His legal team has filed a lawsuit seeking his release from custody and to block his removal from the country. A judge has set a hearing for September 30, according to court records.
The incident is the latest in a streak of shootings by ICE agents during traffic stops in recent months, including the killings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, who were fatally shot within days of each other in July.
Donald Trump’s administration has sought to characterize the shootings as justified before any investigations were performed, let alone completed, while video evidence and witness statements either contradicted official narratives or raised critical questions about the use of lethal force.
Homeland Security said Garcés Pérez is in “stable” condition and remains in federal custody pending his removal from the U.S.
The agency claims Garcés Pérez illegally entered the U.S. during Joe Biden’s administration, but his attorney said he legally entered using the CBP One app, which allowed noncitizens to schedule appointments at ports of entry to seek legal entry and seek asylum and other immigration relief before arriving at the U.S. border.
Last year, the Trump administration abruptly ended the program and moved to terminate legal status for every person who used the app to enter the country, leaving tens of thousands of immigrants vulnerable to arrest and removal.
In March, a federal judge determined that those blanket cancellations were unlawful.
“His immigration matters do not negate his humanity. At all,” his attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch said last week. “This man belongs at home in Austin with his wife.”
