Houston officials call out lack of federal collaboration after fatal ICE shooting

By Julianna Bragg, Priscilla Alvarez, Alisha Ebrahimji, Caroll Alvarado, Danya Gainor, CNN

(CNN) — Days after a federal immigration agent fatally shot a Houston man, frustration is growing among local officials who say federal agencies are resisting collaboration on the investigation into the contentious shooting.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said an agent opened fire Tuesday morning 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 Texas officials say they’re being kept in the dark from federal authorities, without access to key evidence, like Salgado Araujo’s work van, or invitations to the scene of the incident.

“As the chief law enforcement officer of the third largest county in the country, I’m getting updates via Twitter, or X, and that’s not best practices,” Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Friday. “Every day that it goes on, it becomes more and more concerning that we haven’t collaborated.”

Teare said his office would move to ask judges for access to the vehicle if federal authorities don’t agree to share access to evidence.

“It is one of, if not the most, crucial piece of evidence to really uncover what actually happened out there that morning,” he said.

When asked by CNN about the van’s whereabouts, the Department of Homeland Security deferred to the FBI and Office of the Inspector General. The FBI deferred back to DHS. CNN has reached out to the Inspector General’s office.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire expressed a similar frustration Friday as the city’s police department had offered its resources to help with the investigation.

“The FBI has all the evidence that would normally go in to an HPD or other law enforcement agency’s investigation,” Whitmire said at a news conference. “In this instance, the van, the passengers, the deceased, and they’re tightly controlling it. We’ve reached out to them and asked them to share that information with HPD.”

And underneath the sparring between jurisdictions, one Texas family is left to grapple with its grief of their beloved father of three.

At a vigil Saturday morning, stood in front of a picture of his dad flashing a wide smile, Ronaldo Salgado acknowledged all the times he’s been told his father would be proud of him since he passed.

“I don’t think I’ll ever believe that if I don’t hear it from him,” Salgado said through tears to the group of mourners. “So, I really hope I’m making him proud. I really hope that he’s proud of the big brother I’ve become, of the man that I’ve become today, and I will continue to keep fighting for him.”

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

Federal officials’ version of what led to the fatal shooting of Salgado Araujo doesn’t match that of the men who were detained after the incident, an attorney who spoke with them says.

The three men who were riding in Salgado Araujo’s work van 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.

Police lights flashed on inside one unmarked ICE vehicle and the 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.

Videos obtained by CNN show Salgado Araujo’s white work van being pursued by two black SUVs without apparent law enforcement markings.

One video shows a black SUV trailing Salgado Araujo’s van as he drove down Canal Street. The white van appears to briefly stop before reversing and slowly driving on the sidewalk as three officers chase it. It’s unclear what occurred between Salgado Araujo and ICE officers when the white van appeared to stop.

Salgado Araujo was not the target of the operation, a source familiar with preliminary details about the incident told CNN and local officials said during a news conference Friday, citing acting ICE director David Venturella.

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.

In a news conference Friday, Democratic Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Texas said that account appeared different from what she was previously told by Venturella on Thursday. CNN has reached out to DHS for clarity about the differing accounts.

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 also 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.

DHS has not released footage of the shooting, and none of the agents involved had been issued body-worn cameras, a spokesperson said. Body cameras have been deployed to more than half of ICE field offices, with the rest expected to get them within 60 days, an agency spokesperson said.

CNN has asked DHS about any available dashcam footage.

The absence of official footage in the Houston shooting has renewed questions about transparency and accountability in immigration enforcement operations months after a federal judge in Chicago ordered immigration agents involved in enforcement there to wear and activate body cameras.

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.

“If the officers acted outside policy or illegally, they’ll be held accountable,” White House border czar Tom Homan told reporters Friday.

But local officials, including the Harris County district attorney and the Houston mayor, have expressed frustrations about federal officials withholding evidence from the shooting.

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,” Teare, the Harris County district attorney, 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 aboveboard, 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. And if someone committed that crime, you don’t get to hide behind a badge.”

Balderas-Ibarra, who represents two of the passengers who were in the van with Salgado Araujo during the incident, called for his clients’ immediate release from ICE’s Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas, during Friday’s news conference. Neither of their names has been released publicly by officials.

Garcia and Balderas-Ibarra said loved ones of the two detainees have told them they are being pressured to sign voluntary deportation forms — an incentive program used to get undocumented immigrants to leave the country on their own.

ICE denied the allegation Friday, telling CNN “It is categorically false we would pressure someone to self-deport.”

Salgado Araujo’s brother, who was also in the vehicle during the traffic stop and has been detained, wants to remain in the US to seek justice for his brother, Ruby Powers, the Houston-based immigration attorney representing him, told CNN on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Mexican government moved Friday to elevate its concerns beyond diplomatic protest as it sought criminal investigations in the US and demanded accountability for 17 Mexican citizens who have died in ICE’s custody or enforcement operations, she said.

“We are preparing legal measures,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday. “Obviously, more significant ones would go to different international bodies.”

Texas Democratic lawmakers, activists and Salgado Araujo’s family are demanding a more in-depth investigation into his killing, with the civil rights group League of United Latin American Citizens offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

At Friday’s news conference, Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green said he signed onto a Homeland Security Committee letter to Secretary Markwayne Mullin demanding evidence related to the shooting, including body camera footage with an explanation if no such video exists, details on how officers identified themselves, records related to the officers involved and any evidence supporting the government’s account of events.

Salgado Araujo’s body was picked up by the funeral home Friday after an autopsy was conducted by the Harris County medical examiner. The family is also pursuing an independent autopsy while grappling with their sudden loss, LULAC National President Roman Palomares said.

“He was young. He was healthy. He was strong. He had a whole lifetime ahead of him, and his family misses him,” he said.

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 a statement.

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 on Thursday.

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.

Garcia said Friday the ICE agents involved in the incident “were removed from Houston the very next day.”

CNN has asked DHS how many agents were involved in the incident, their rank within the department and if they had been reassigned or were placed on administrative leave.

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 said at a news conference Wednesday.

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.

On Friday night, community members gathered at a rally in San Antonio and called for a thorough investigation into the shooting. A community vigil was held Saturday morning at the Service Employees International Union Texas office in Houston, where mourners gathered to honor Salgado Araujo.

“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, Taylor Galgano and Karina Tsui contributed to this report.