A federal immigration agent shot and wounded a 28-year-old Venezuelan man during a vehicle stop in North Austin on Sunday afternoon, in an operation that local police say they took no part in and that has produced two irreconcilable accounts of who the man is.
The wounded man is Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, according to his attorney and to officials who have spoken publicly since the shooting. He was working as a DoorDash delivery driver when he was stopped. He was hit once in the torso, taken to Dell Seton Medical Center and was described on Monday as being in serious but stable condition — and, the Department of Homeland Security says, in federal custody pending removal.
What is known about the sequence
The shooting happened at around 12:50 p.m. Central time on Sunday, September 20, near the intersection of Anderson Square and Research Boulevard. Austin-Travis County EMS was notified six minutes later, at 12:56 p.m.
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said the episode "may have involved a foot pursuit," while stressing that the information was preliminary. She was explicit on one point: local police were not involved in the shooting. Texas state troopers did respond, after ICE asked for help pursuing a blue Toyota Corolla.
The agent who fired has not been identified. The car Garces Perez was driving was left with at least two bullet holes on the passenger side.
City Council member Mike Siegel, who lives blocks from the scene, gave a far more specific account: he said an ICE officer rammed the man's car, got out of his federal vehicle and opened fire at least five times. That version has not been confirmed by any agency. Garces Perez's attorney says he managed to phone his wife from inside the car, shouting in pain.
Two versions of the same man
The dispute is not only about the shooting. It is about who was stopped.
A DHS spokesperson said Garces Perez "illegally entered our country under the Biden Administration" and was subject to a final order of removal. His attorney says the opposite: that he entered the United States legally, holds a valid work permit, and is married to a woman with legal status.
Both statements cannot be true, and neither has been tested against a document released to the public. That is the gap the demands for footage are aimed at.
Who is investigating whom
The investigative arm of DHS is leading the inquiry — that is, the department whose own officer fired is running the investigation into the shooting. That arrangement is what local officials are objecting to.
Representative Greg Casar called for an independent investigation and for the "immediate release of the body camera footage, and accountability for any ICE officer who broke the law," citing earlier cases in which, he said, ICE's initial account of a shooting did not survive contact with the video. The Travis County District Attorney's Office has asked to work alongside city police and to be given access to federal evidence — a request, not an entitlement, since the agent is a federal officer.
Mayor Kirk Watson said he was angry but, pointedly, not surprised, and drew a line to similar episodes in Chicago and Minneapolis.
At least the second such shooting in Texas this year. A fatal incident involving immigration agents took place in Houston in July, and another shooting was recorded in Maine the same month. The pattern that local officials keep returning to is not the frequency alone but the sequence: an agency statement first, footage later or not at all.
Reporting from TIME, NPR, CBS News and CNN.
