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

By Taylor Romine, Priscilla Alvarez, Andy Rose, CNN

(CNN) — A Venezuelan man who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Sunday was discharged from a hospital for a second time with a bullet still lodged in his back, according to his attorney, who is 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 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.

In a statement Tuesday, DHS said Garces Perez was “the subject of a targeted vehicle stop,” and “had a final order of removal” from an immigration judge, but didn’t share any other details about the incident.

The local district attorney called for an independent investigation into what happened, saying Wednesday federal agencies have yet to provide evidence to his office.

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

Attorney files petition to stop deportation

Garces Perez filed a petition in federal court Monday asking a judge to block the government from deporting him. Judge Orlando Garcia set a hearing for September 30, in San Antonio, ordering Garces Perez to appear in court in person on that day.

“That means he won’t be deported in the meantime,” said Lincoln-Goldfinch.

Garces Perez was taken to a hospital Monday evening before he was released a second time and taken back to the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Lincoln-Goldfinch told CNN Tuesday. The bullet remains lodged in his back, she said, and he is unable to move his left arm.

“We now understand that the gunshot fractured his clavicle and that he has significant swelling and is wearing a sling,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said in an Instagram post Tuesday.

The ICE officer who shot Garces Perez is now on administrative leave, in line with standard procedure, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The officer, who was not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting, was a recent hire, according to two sources familiar with the incident. He had previously worked for another federal law enforcement agency before joining ICE.

According to a law enforcement source, the officer completed his ICE training in August 2025. That training included use-of-force and arrest encounter exercises.

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, eventually telling him they were ICE agents and that he was going to be arrested, the source said. Garces Perez then fled the scene in his car, the source said. The shooting happened later.

A video shared by the Austin Police Department Tuesday from an off-duty officer’s dashboard footage shows at 12:43 p.m., Garces Perez’s car is stopped on the side of the road before the intersection where he was later shot. His car is stopped with an officer at the window, and a black SUV in front of and behind his car.

During a news conference Monday, Garces Perez called in from ICE custody and gave a differing 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.

An off-duty officer turned into a nearby shopping center after recording the dash camera footage to complete a personal errand, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said during a news conference Tuesday. When he returned to his vehicle, he heard sirens and began recording another video on his personal cell phone. There was no timestamp on the video.

Three gunshots could be heard in that video shared by Austin police Tuesday.

Garces Perez 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.

There was no apparent foot chase, Davis said.

Homeland Security Investigations, the agency’s investigative branch, will lead the investigation with assistance from the FBI, DHS said in a post on X.

“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.

Another 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.

Another video released by Austin police Tuesday showed the body worn camera footage of an officer who arrived on scene at 12:55 p.m. and started giving aid to Garces Perez.

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.

“He had been placed in isolation, but because he was losing mobility, a nurse in the infirmary decided that he should go to the hospital,” Lincoln-Goldfinch told CNN’s Jake Tapper Tuesday. “He spent about six hours in the hospital last night, where they cleaned his wound and gave him a morphine drip, and sent him back to Pearsall.”

Garces Perez told Lincoln-Goldfinch that he was previously only getting Ibuprofen and Tylenol. “I could see that he was in a sling with bruising around his chest area, and he was clearly in a lot of pain,” she said.

Garces Perez also relayed Monday afternoon, 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.

DHS denied they influenced Garces Perez’s medical treatment in their statement Tuesday, saying the agency “does not and would not advise, nor be the authority on, a medical procedure” for someone in their custody.

They also said Garces Perez was “receiving medical care around the clock, including pain medication” and that he slept on a bed when he got to the processing facility.

Garces Perez could be “facing paralysis,” Lincoln-Goldfinch told CNN’s Erin Burnett Monday evening. She said Tuesday that he also had his communication devices taken away at the facility after he participated in the news conference Monday. CNN has reached out to DHS for comment.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson went to the hospital on Sunday to see Garces Perez but by the time he got there, the man was already removed from the facility, the mayor said during a news conference Tuesday.

Watson said he was there in part to help Garces Perez’s wife, who was not allowed to see her husband. But Davis later said under their department’s policy, somebody detained by police would not be able to see their spouse while they were hospitalized.

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.”

Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garces Perez legally entered the country through CBP One, a Biden-era program, to seek asylum. He was allowed into the country and issued a work permit, while he went through immigration proceedings. The Trump administration has since ended the program. DHS said Garces Perez’s work permit expired in 2025.

“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, whose jurisdiction covers most of Austin, told CNN on Wednesday his team is seeking access to video evidence and an interview with the ICE agent who fired their weapon. The DA’s office said Sunday its department wanted to conduct an independent investigation in coordination with the Austin Police Department.

“So far, the information has been flowing from the Austin Police Department to federal law enforcement officials, and as we sit here today, three days away from this shooting, it is incredibly important that the information start to flow both ways,” said District Attorney José Garza.

“To my knowledge, at this point, the federal government has not shared any evidence with the Austin Police Department, and importantly, has not responded to a request from the Austin Police Department to be able to participate in or be allowed to interview the ICE agent who discharged his weapon here in Travis County this past Sunday,” he said.

Police and prosecutors are hoping to access various types of video footage, “from body cameras to vehicle cameras,” Garza said.

The appeal 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.

Watson said during a news conference Sunday that it 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.

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. DHS responded on X to a clip from Casar critizing ICE, saying “No, Texas will not be safer without ICE law enforcement.”

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.”

DHS said in a post on X Tuesday ICE “will not be slowing down operations in Austin.”

“Our mission is to administer the laws passed by Congress — we do not pick and choose which laws to enforce or where we enforce them,” the post said.

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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.