ICE Agent Kills Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston After Attempted Vehicle Ram

A federal immigration agent fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during an enforcement operation in Houston’s East End, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed there is no body camera footage of the incident.

DHS said the officers involved had not been issued body-worn cameras because “back-to-back Democrat shutdowns” delayed equipping ICE officers, and it said body cameras have been deployed to more than half of ICE field offices with the remaining offices set to receive them within 60 days.

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ICE said the shooting happened around 6:50 a.m. Tuesday in the 6800 block of Canal Street while agents were attempting to arrest Salgado Araujo, whom ICE identified as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico.

ICE officials said Salgado Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle and attempted to run over an ICE agent, prompting “our officer firing his weapon in self-defense,” and Salgado Araujo was later pronounced dead at Ben Taub Hospital.

While DHS and ICE described the incident as a self-defense shooting after Salgado Araujo “weaponized his vehicle,” witnesses and attorneys for men arrested during the operation disputed that account.

Hugo Baldera-Ibarra, an attorney representing two of the men in the van, said the men told him “at no point was there ever an agent standing in front of the vehicle,” and he said agents repeatedly fired into the vehicle from the side.

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The Washington Post reported that the three men arrested during the operation said a federal officer fired at them almost immediately after exiting his vehicle and that “at no point did the driver veer in his direction.”

NPR reported that María Guadalupe Rodriguez, a longtime neighbor in Magnolia Park, told the outlet “I feel rage,” and said she was praying at a makeshift memorial while DHS had not provided video evidence to support the claim that Salgado Araujo tried to use his van as a weapon.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare launched a parallel review and urged anyone who witnessed the shooting to contact investigators, while Houston city officials said they do not have jurisdiction because the shooting involved federal law enforcement officers rather than local police.

Teare said, “I am imploring the community -- anyone that was there that day,” and he added that “Things that you may not think are important could be the pivotal piece of information for us to finally figure out what actually happened.”

U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said acting ICE director David Venturella confirmed to her that Salgado Araujo “was not a target,” and she said DHS told her there was no body camera footage of the incident.

The Associated Press reported that DHS said the agents weren’t wearing body-worn cameras and that few photos or videos have emerged publicly, while it also reported that LULAC offered a reward of $5,000 for information from witnesses and said the position of Salgado Araujo’s van and ICE vehicles obstructed security camera footage it reviewed.