Federal immigration agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a traffic stop in Houston even though they were looking for another person, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman told The New York Times.
Araujo was a Mexican immigrant who had lived and worked in the United States for 35 years, according to his family. His family said he was still trying to obtain permanent residence or citizenship. Reports cited in the case say he had no criminal record, ran his own business, and was headed to a job with passengers when the stop turned fatal.
DHS officials said agents tried to stop Araujo’s vehicle, the encounter escalated, and an agent shot him in the abdomen. He died at a hospital hours later, according to the Times. Homeland Security officials also said Araujo tried to use his vehicle as a weapon, but the Times reported that no video or other evidence supporting that claim had emerged.
The post-shooting record got messy fast
The central fact is ugly and uncomplicated: immigration officers, operating on an immigration matter, killed a man DHS later said was not the person they were seeking. The department has not provided public details about the person agents were trying to find, according to the reporting cited in the case.
Video not recorded by ICE officers has complicated the government’s account. Reports described unmarked crossover vehicles pursuing Araujo’s vehicle, with no visible emergency lights in the portion of the footage discussed. ICE officers were supposed to be wearing body cameras at the time, according to the reporting, but the cited public video did not come from ICE.
CNN later reported that a search warrant tied to the Houston incident was initially shielded from public view, then unsealed the next day while a criminal investigation was still underway. Justice Department veterans told CNN they could not recall similar case information being made public at that stage.
That warrant referred to still-unidentified substances allegedly found on the dashboard and floor of the van Araujo had been driving, CNN reported. Those items were found after the shooting, not before the stop, and the reporting cited no lab results identifying the substances.
Witnesses faced immigration pressure, advocate says
Three other men in the van were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the encounter, according to The New Republic. They had not spoken publicly about what happened when that story was published.
Juan Proaño, chief executive of the League of United Latin American Citizens and a representative for the families, told The New Republic that immigration officials were pressuring the three men to agree to self-deport. That claim has not been matched in the cited reporting with a public DHS explanation.
The Houston shooting came after Markwayne Mullin was confirmed as Homeland Security secretary in March, according to DHS. During his confirmation hearings, Mullin told senators, “My goal in six months is that we’re not in the lead story every single day,” according to the Financial Times account cited in the coverage.
The Houston case was followed by another ICE shooting in Maine. The Associated Press reported that ICE officer David Brouillette, who shot Colombian man Johan Guerrero, was described by several close relatives as an Army veteran with serious mental health issues dating to childhood. Those relatives alleged a history of violent behavior, including attacks on women, and one shared a voicemail with AP in which Brouillette said he thought someone should slit her throat.
This story draws on original reporting from Techdirt.
