Disclosure complicates earlier DHS claim that driver struck ICE vehicle
Aaron Reitz, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, disclosed Thursday evening that the ICE officers who fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo on July 7 were not targeting the 52-year-old driver. Reitz said the officers were instead pursuing two Guatemalan men who were potentially subject to deportation, and that the men were driving a van similar to the one Salgado Araujo was driving when he was killed.
The disclosure complicates the government’s earlier claim that Salgado Araujo struck an ICE vehicle before he was shot. In a statement released the day Salgado Araujo was killed, the Department of Homeland Security said he was targeted in an immigration enforcement operation and was living in the country without legal permission.
On July 7, Salgado Araujo was driving to a Houston construction job site with three co-workers, one of whom was his brother, when an ICE officer fatally shot him. His family has described him as a hardworking father of three who was close to obtaining legal status after living in the United States for 35 years. The shooting sparked protests in the city, with family members calling for a transparent investigation.
The shooting came days before two other men died during immigration enforcement actions in Florida and Maine, renewing scrutiny of the Department of Homeland Security’s law enforcement tactics.