A man was seriously injured after being shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in North Austin, Texas, on Sunday, according to city officials.
Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Rob Luckritz said emergency crews were notified of a shooting in the 8000 block of Anderson Square just before one Sunday afternoon. They found the man suffering from a gunshot wound to his body. He was taken to a local trauma center in serious but stable condition.
Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, the attorney representing the man, identified him to several news outlets as 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, a Venezuelan national.
Lincoln-Goldfinch said on X Garces Perez had been in the middle of a DoorDash delivery when he was shot. Garces Perez, she said in an Instagram video, was taken into ICE custody on Sunday afternoon.
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Luckritz said officials could not confirm whether Garces Perez was shot in the front or back.
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said preliminary information indicated there was a brief foot pursuit before the shooting. She said she had not yet been briefed by federal authorities about the operation that preceded it.
Davis confirmed she had been told an ICE agent was involved in the shooting.
Austin police were not involved in the shooting, Mayor Kirk Watson said. Officers assisted with road closures and traffic control following the incident.
Davis said the Austin Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit, which investigates officer-involved shootings involving Austin police, was at the scene. She said the Texas Rangers would work alongside Austin investigators and that she had also spoken with Homeland Security Investigations about cooperation with the investigation.
Watson said he pushed for local involvement in the probe to provide an independent set of eyes on what happened.
“Austinites have a right to know what happened,” Watson said, adding that residents “have a right to feel safe in their city.”
Watson also criticized ICE’s operations in Austin and said he was angry about Sunday’s shooting.
“I’m very angry about this. I’m extremely unhappy,” Watson said. “A person being shot on the streets of Austin by someone purporting to be law enforcement, particularly when it’s ICE, is something that causes me to be unhappy and angry about it.”
Davis said authorities did not know the whereabouts of the agent involved following the shooting.
The shooting comes amid what local officials described as a sharp increase in ICE activity in Austin. Watson said reports of ICE detentions and stops increased from a number that could be counted “on one hand” to roughly 30 in a matter of days. Davis said Austin police have not participated in the federal immigration enforcement operations.
Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, called for transparency and an independent investigation. He said his office would request information from the Department of Homeland Security and ICE and make that information public.
“It is so important for us to have transparency and the true facts in this case,” Casar said during the news conference. He also called for ICE to end what he described as a surge in enforcement activity in Austin.
Casar had earlier said he wants the release of body camera footage from the shooting.
“We will demand truth, transparency and accountability,” Casar wrote on X.
Officials said the investigation remained in its early stages and pledged to release additional information as it becomes available.
Straight Arrow reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and is awaiting a response.
There have been other instances of shootings by federal agents that have killed or wounded citizens and non-citizens as the Trump administration put a focus on increasing immigration operations across the country. Earlier this year, also in Texas, ICE agents shot and killed business owner Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a traffic stop.
This is a developing story and will continue to be updated.
