ICE officer fatally shoots man while conducting traffic stop in Houston, agency says
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/40041177
A Mexican immigrant was on his way to finish construction on several Houston homes with a crew of workers Tuesday morning when he was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, his family said.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was driving in Houston’s East End area when ICE agents tried to conduct a traffic stop as part of a “targeted operation” and he attempted to evade arrest, an ICE spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.
“He should have been picking up the last of his guys before heading to North Houston to finish up construction on some houses,” Salgado Araujo’s son Ronaldo Salgado said at a Wednesday news conference.
“Unbeknownst to all of us, my dad had been shot inside his van … by ICE agents in unmarked cars,” he added.
The agency says Salgado Araujo rammed into a law enforcement vehicle and refused to follow several verbal commands before an ICE agent fired his weapon in self-defense.
Salgado Araujo had no criminal history and was afraid when unmarked cars began following him, his son said. He does not appear to have a criminal record, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s office.
“Had my father seen an emblem of ICE, or an emblem that says anything about a law enforcement agency, my father would have complied. He would have stopped,” Salgado said. “He drove fast, because he feared that someone would take his tools.”
He was later taken to a hospital where he died from his injuries, ICE said. Three other men in the van, including Salgado Araujo’s brother, were detained, according to his family.
Video taken after the shooting shows a federal agent on the phone as he holds onto Salgado Araujo, who is moaning in pain. He is lying face down on the driveway or sidewalk of a barbershop.
“He was bleeding from the right side of his stomach,” said Houston resident Juliet Martinez, who recorded the video and shared it with CNN. “He was screaming for help and screaming that he was in pain. He yelled, ‘Help me! They shot me!’”
Salgado Araujo was living in the US without legal permission, ICE said, but the agency did not specify whether the agents had been looking for him.
He had submitted an application for a work permit, according to his son, but ICE did not share further information about Salgado Araujo’s immigration status.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General is leading an investigation into the shooting, according to ICE. A spokesperson for the FBI’s Houston field office said the agency is investigating the alleged assault on a federal law enforcement officer.
CNN has reached out to DHS-OIG for more information.
Tuesday’s incident is the second ICE-involved shooting in less than a week and comes amid an uptick in immigration enforcement prompted by President Donald Trump’s sweeping deportation agenda.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/07/us/houston-ice-shooting-deathOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
