Austin officials seek independent probe of Sunday traffic-stop shooting
ICE enforcement operations produced more than 50,000 arrests a month in July and August for the first time in the agency’s history, The Guardian reported, as a Sunday shooting of a man by an ICE officer during a traffic stop on Austin’s north side drew immediate demands from city officials for an independent investigation.
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said at a news conference with the mayor and other city officials that the unnamed man was in serious but stable condition at a hospital after being shot once in the torso. Austin police officers were not involved in the operation or the shooting, Davis told reporters, though the department’s special investigation unit had responded to the scene.
Davis said she did not yet know the nationality of the person who was shot. There were not many facts she could provide so soon after the incident, the chief added.
Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat, said he wants the city’s police department to be involved in the investigation so it can provide “clear, third-party eyes” in the process. Watson said he does not think it would be appropriate for ICE to conduct an investigation on its own. Austin residents have “a right to feel safe in their city,” Watson added, and a proper investigation will only enhance credibility.
Asked whether local authorities knew the location of the involved federal agent — noting that agents have left states after previous shootings nationwide — Watson said: “We do not know that. But my hope would be that, an agent that’s involved in an officer-involved shooting would not leave the city. Certainly not leave the state.”
U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, a Democrat representing parts of Austin, called for transparency as the shooting is investigated. “It is awful that this horror has come to our doorstep,” Casar told reporters. “For Austin to be safe, ICE should end its surge here.”
A dark blue Toyota Corolla was parked under an overpass with damage to its passenger-side door and what appeared to be bullet holes, local media reported. A large law enforcement presence was at the scene along with a crowd of about a hundred protesters. Some demonstrators cursed at police officers holding riot shields while others yelled as passing cars honked in support of the protest. One man held a sign reading “Nobody is safe” on one side and “ICE Nazi” on the other. Photographs from the scene showed authorities deploying “non-lethal” weapons near the demonstration.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not participate in the news conference and did not immediately respond to requests for details.
The shooting comes as ICE has surged enforcement across the country this summer, producing more than 50,000 arrests a month in July and August for the first time in the agency’s history, The Guardian reported.
In July, an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo of Houston after federal agents driving unmarked vehicles pursued him while he was taking his construction crew to a job site. Also that month, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian man, was shot by an ICE officer in Maine. The Maine officer is an army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and “never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets,” according to several of his close relatives, who spoke to the Associated Press.
The administration’s enforcement efforts were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.