What we know so far about the fatal ICE shooting of a Mexican father in Houston

By Julianna Bragg, Priscilla Alvarez, CNN

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

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

But attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra said three men detained during the operation told him 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,” Balderas-Ibarra said in a video posted to his Instagram.

The men said the agent who shot Salgado Araujo opened fire almost immediately after exiting his vehicle, Balderas-Ibarra told The Washington Post. CNN has reached out to Balderas-Ibarra and ICE for comment.

Complete details of the encounter and shooting remain unclear as calls for an independent investigation mount along with questions about how the situation escalated.

A source familiar with preliminary details about the incident told CNN Salgado Araujo wasn’t the target of the operation.

Texas authorities had previously 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.

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

Salgado Araujo’s family also disputes the 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, and a spokesperson said none of the agents involved had been issued body-worn cameras.

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

Investigations by the FBI and DHS’s Office of the Inspector General are ongoing, as well as by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. Salgado Araujo’s family and members of the public are demanding a more comprehensive investigation.

Here’s what we know about the shooting that left the Houston father dead.

How the shooting unfolded

Like any other day, Salgado Araujo left his home Tuesday, heading to Houston’s East End to pick up the rest of his construction crew before driving north to work on some homes.

While he was driving shortly before 7 a.m., ICE agents attempted to stop him as part of what the agency described as a “targeted operation.”

ICE said Salgado Araujo rammed his car into a law enforcement vehicle and ignored repeated verbal commands. An ICE agent then fired his weapon, according to a statement provided to CNN Tuesday.

Three other men traveling with Salgado Araujo when the shooting happened – including his brother – were detained, according to his family.

The three men said after one unmarked ICE vehicle turned on its police lights, the van proceeded slowly down the road and the ICE vehicles rammed into the van, but Salgado Araujo never drove into the agents’ cars, attorney Balderas-Ibarra told the Washington Post.

Video shows a wounded man lying face down and moaning in pain next to a white SUV parked near a barbershop as a federal agent kneels over him while on the phone. The right side of his 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.

Salgado Araujo’s cause of death was determined to be a gunshot wound to the torso and the manner was ruled a homicide, the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences told CNN Thursday.

Seeking legal status

Salgado Araujo’s son, Ronaldo Salgado, told CNN he 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.

CNN has asked DHS whether immigration enforcement agents identified themselves to Salgado Araujo but has not heard back.

Salgado Araujo had prepared for the possibility of an encounter with federal immigration authorities, according to his son. He said his 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,” his son said.

The father 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.

His family’s search for answers

The morning of the shooting, Ronaldo Salgado received a call from his mother saying only that “something bad” had happened involving ICE. He immediately rushed to his father’s work site to search for his van.

When he found no sign of his father’s vehicle, Ronaldo Salgado came across a Facebook post mentioning ICE activity in the East End area. When he arrived at the scene around 8:30 a.m., he found only his father’s van parked on a blocked-off street.

As he frantically called loved ones searching for information, Ronaldo Salgado came across a social media video showing his wounded father.

“I recognized him immediately, not from his appearance but from his voice crying for help as he lay on the street bleeding out,” Ronaldo Salgado said through tears as his voice broke.

After spending hours at the scene, Ronaldo Salgado finally found the hospital his father had been taken to – the same one where two of Salgado Araujo’s sons were born – but was unable to get updates on his condition. Instead, he said he learned his father had died through reports circulating on social media, which were later confirmed by local organizations and elected officials.

As of Thursday evening, Salgado Araujo’s body had not been returned to the family, his son told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

Multiple investigations 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,” according to spokesperson Rafael Lemaitre.

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 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.”

Teare added that protecting the integrity of the investigation is his top priority.

“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 of his death, with the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

LULAC’s Chief Executive Officer Juan Proaño is also asking for Salgado Araujo’s body to be returned to his family and requesting all information that can be used as evidence to be retained.

Democratic US Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Texas, one of the lawmakers calling for an independent investigation into the killing of Salgado Araujo, suggested escalating the case even further 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,” Salgado 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. A GoFundMe organized for the family described Salgado Araujo as someone “known for his work ethic, his fairness, and his willingness to help anyone who needed it.”

“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,” he said.

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