Lawyer contests ICE’s shooting account

María Luisa Paúl and Mateo Rosiles

USA TODAY NETWORK

An attorney for the Venezuelan immigrant shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Austin disputed authorities’ initial account of the encounter on Sept. 21, saying video footage does not show a foot pursuit before the officer opened fire.

Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, who represents Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, said he remained detained at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas, with a bullet still lodged in his body. During a call from detention played on speakerphone at a Sept. 21 news conference, Garcés Pérez denied running from officers before he was shot. 'There was never a foot chase,' Garcés Pérez said in Spanish. 'I never got out of the vehicle.'

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said on Sept. 20 that preliminary information indicated the shooting followed a 'small foot pursuit.'

The competing accounts are fueling demands for an investigation independent of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. DHS has said its Homeland Security Investigations division is leading the inquiry with assistance from the FBI.

The department has faced scrutiny over its descriptions of other shootings involving immigration officers, including a Minnesota encounter in which an ICE officer now faces criminal charges that he lied about being attacked before opening fire. Videos released after shootings in Chicago and South Padre Island, Texas, have also contradicted or raised doubts about key elements of the government’s initial accounts.

'We are fed up with ICE and DHS telling us lies about what has happened in these incidents where people are being murdered and shot,' Lincoln-Goldfinch said. 'We want the truth.'

DHS described Garcés Pérez in its statement as 'an illegal alien from Venezuela' who entered the United States illegally under the Biden administration and had a final removal order. The department said he was stable and remained 'in federal custody pending removal.'

'This is a developing situation, and we will update the public when more information becomes available,' DHS said.

Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garcés Pérez entered the United States legally about two years ago after scheduling an appointment through CBP One, a Biden-era program that allowed immigrants to present themselves at ports of entry and be considered for temporary humanitarian parole. He later applied for asylum and received authorization to work, she said.

An immigration judge ordered him deported in absentia after a notice of a hearing was mailed to an old address and he failed to appear, according to Lincoln-Goldfinch. She said Garcés Pérez did not know about the deportation order.

'The court is notorious for sending notices of hearings to the wrong address, so it appears that that is what happened with him,' she said.

DHS did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s questions about whether Garcés Pérez ever left his car, whether ICE supplied Austin officials with the preliminary account of a foot pursuit, or what prompted the officer to fire. DHS also did not respond to questions about Garcés Pérez’s medical care in detention.

Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garcés Pérez told her he was making a DoorDash delivery shortly before 1 p.m. local time on Sept. 20 when an unmarked black vehicle sideswiped his car. He did not know the people inside were federal officers and made a U-turn beneath a highway before the vehicle followed him and struck his car again, she said.

An officer fired at the back of Garcés Pérez’s car once it had come to a stop, Lincoln-Goldfinch said.

'The agents came out and shot him in the back of the neck and pulled him out of the car,' Lincoln-Goldfinch said.

Videos recorded near the scene and posted on social media appear to show a blue Toyota Corolla and a dark SUV traveling beneath a highway overpass before a series of loud bangs. Footage recorded after the shooting shows Garcés Pérez wounded inside the car as federal officers stand nearby. Photos from the scene show damage to the Corolla’s passenger side and what appear to be bullet holes in a rear passenger window.

Austin-Travis County emergency crews took Garcés Pérez to Dell Seton Medical Center in serious but stable condition.

Though officials initially said he had been shot in the torso, Lincoln-Goldfinch later said the bullet entered near the back of his neck and remained lodged near his spine. Garcés Pérez said he complained about the pain, but doctors did not remove it because of its location.

'The doctor said, ‘Hey, they’re in a hurry to get you out of here,’' Garcés Pérez said he was told.

He was discharged from the hospital later Sept. 20 and transferred into ICE custody. Lincoln-Goldfinch said federal officers took him to the detention center in Pearsall, about 130 miles southwest of Austin, where he arrived at 4 a.m. and was made to sleep on the floor.

Speaking from detention on Sept. 21, Garcés Pérez said he had not received proper medical care. 'I am not doing well due to the gunshot wound, and I have not received the medical attention that I require,' Garcés Pérez said.

Lincoln-Goldfinch said federal officers had also questioned Garcés Pérez despite his injury. His attorneys filed a federal lawsuit seeking his release and an order preventing the government from deporting him while the shooting and the circumstances surrounding it are investigated.

Austin police were not involved in the federal operation or the shooting, Davis said. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson has said the city’s police department and the Texas Rangers should participate in the investigation, questioning whether an inquiry conducted solely by the federal agencies involved would be credible.

'From my perspective, the credibility of ICE doing some form of an investigation just by itself and excluding others would not be appropriate,' Watson said Sept. 20.

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, called for the immediate release of body camera footage and a 'full, independent investigation.'

Flowers and candles are seen at an intersection near an ICE-related shooting in Austin on Sept. 21.

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Lincoln-Goldfinch