ICE agents who killed Houston man were seeking other people, DHS says

Brother of slain man taken into custody after traffic stop

The Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston this week were looking for two Guatemalan nationals when they stopped his vehicle, not the Mexican immigrant who had lived in the United States for 35 years.

Salgado Araujo was driving a white van with three other people around 6:50 a.m. on Tuesday when agents stopped him on his way to work, according to DHS. After the shooting, the three men were taken into custody. One of them, Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, the victim’s brother, was reported to be in an immigration detention center, according to advocates cited by the Guardian.

The ICE agents claimed Salgado Araujo “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer,” who then fired his weapon in self-defense, DHS said. The agency did not provide evidence to corroborate that account. The officers involved in the shooting were not wearing body cameras, DHS said.

The DHS has used similar justifications in other fatal shootings during immigration enforcement operations, including the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis in January, where video evidence later contradicted the officers’ account, according to the Guardian.

Salgado Araujo’s son, Ronaldo, said his father was not being sought by federal agents, according to the New York Times.

At least six people have died during immigration enforcement operations since July, according to prior MSI reporting. The FBI is investigating the shooting, DHS previously said.