Man Shot by ICE in Austin Says He Still Has Bullet in His Body

A Venezuelan man who was shot by a US immigration officer in Austin on Sunday says he still has a bullet lodged in his body.

(Bloomberg) -- A Venezuelan man who was shot by a US immigration officer in Austin on Sunday says he still has a bullet lodged in his body. 

Wilber Garces Perez, 28, was released from an Austin hospital hours after the shooting and is now in federal custody, said his lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch. His wound wasn’t treated while he was interrogated, she said Monday during a news conference at which she took a call from Garces Perez and put him on speakerphone.

“I am not doing well due to the gunshot wound and I have not received the medical attention I require,” Garces Perez said on the call, adding that he was made to sleep on the floor after arriving at an immigration jail in South Texas. “I have a lot of pain.”

In a statement posted on X late Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security said a Venezuelan immigrant who has a pending deportation order was shot and wounded during an arrest operation led by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. DHS said the man was “stable and he is in federal custody pending removal.” 

The agency has said ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division, with help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is probing the shooting. DHS didn’t immediately respond to a request for additional comment Monday.

At the news conference, Garces Perez and Lincoln-Goldfinch provided an account of the events before the shooting. They said he was in the middle of a DoorDash delivery shift Sunday afternoon when his car was sideswiped by an unmarked sport utility vehicle. That prompted him to make a U-turn, after which his car was hit again before he stopped. Then he was shot.

Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garces Perez entered the US two years ago during the Biden administration, using a government-run smartphone app to make an appointment to come to the border and seek asylum. He was later ordered deported in absentia after a hearing notice was sent to the wrong address, she said. Lincoln-Goldfinch said they will be fighting the removal order.

The Austin shooting occurred two months after immigration officers shot and killed a man in Houston and another man in Maine less than a week apart. In January, immigration officers killed two US citizens in Minneapolis during a crackdown in the city. 

Garces Perez’s shooting prompted outcry from Democratic leaders in Texas. James Talarico, who has emerged as the best chance in decades for Democrats to win a Senate seat in Texas, called for an independent investigation of the ICE shooting in Austin.

“Previous incidents have shown that this agency cannot be trusted to report all the facts,” Talarico said in a statement on X. “We need a full, independent investigation that includes the release of any and all available footage.”

US Representative Greg Casar, a Democrat from Texas, pushed for “immediate release of the body camera footage, and accountability for any ICE officer who broke the law.”