ICE Shooting Leaves Austin Man Hospitalized, Sparks Outrage
An ICE officer shot and seriously wounded a Venezuelan man delivering food for DoorDash Sunday afternoon in Austin, Texas, prompting protests, a tense standoff with law enforcement that stretched into the night, and calls from local officials for an independent investigation.
What Happened
The man was identified by his immigration attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, as 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garcés Perez. The shooting occurred around 1 p.m. in the 8000 block of Anderson Square in North Austin, near the intersection with Research Boulevard. According to Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Sheridan Nolen, the agency had received a request for assistance from ICE involving a vehicle pursuit of a blue Toyota Corolla. Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said the shooting followed what she described as a "small foot pursuit," though she cautioned that information remained preliminary, since the Austin Police Department was not involved in the shooting or the initial operation.
A video obtained by ABC News captured the immediate aftermath, showing Garcés Perez hunched over in the driver's seat of a damaged blue sedan as ICE officers surrounded the vehicle. In the video, he can be heard saying in Spanish that he was shot because he did not "brake." He was later seen handcuffed while officers cut his shirt to expose a gunshot wound on his back.
Garcés Perez was struck once in the torso and taken to a local hospital in "serious but stable condition," according to Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Robert Luckritz. Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garcés Perez was later released from the hospital directly into ICE custody. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Monday that it is leading the investigation into the shooting, describing the man in a statement as "an illegal alien from Venezuela" who was "in federal custody pending removal." Law enforcement sources told ABC News the incident occurred during a targeted ICE operation, and that Garcés Perez is believed to have a final order of removal. Lincoln-Goldfinch told NPR that Garcés Perez is married to a woman with legal status to live in the United States.
Local Officials React
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said he had limited information about the shooting hours after it occurred but did not hide his frustration. "A person being shot on the streets of Austin by someone purporting to be law enforcement, particularly when it's ICE, is something that causes me to be unhappy and angry," Watson said at a news conference at City Hall, calling for an independent investigation into the incident.
Police Chief Davis said the department's Special Investigations Unit responded to the scene and that she had been in contact with the Texas Rangers and Homeland Security Investigations, who she said had agreed to cooperate with local investigators. "The city of Austin deserves answers in what occurred," Davis said. "We're going to get all those questions answered, and we'll be as transparent as we can be."
U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, a Democrat representing part of Austin, connected the shooting to a broader pattern of recent ICE-involved incidents in Texas. "This is a pattern — it's a disturbing pattern — and it's got to stop," Casar said.
Part of a Recent Pattern
Sunday's shooting is at least the third instance of an ICE agent shooting a person in Texas since March 2025, according to the Texas Tribune. Two months earlier, an ICE officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, during an attempted traffic stop in Houston. Earlier this month, two teenagers who are U.S. citizens said they were attacked by ICE agents in Alamo, Texas, after recording an immigration stop, with video showing one of them being repeatedly punched in the head while pinned to the pavement. Last month, ICE officer Christian Castro was charged with lying about a separate shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minnesota; he has pleaded not guilty and is currently free on bond.
Austin's mayor said the shooting in his city came amid a recent increase in ICE operations there.
Protests Follow the Shooting
Dozens of protesters gathered at the scene of the shooting throughout the day and into the evening, next to an elevated stretch of Highway 183. Demonstrators shouted anti-ICE slogans in both English and Spanish and carried signs reading "Stop ICE murder," "Moms against ICE," and "Abolish ICE." Late Sunday night, tensions escalated further, and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers responded by deploying tear gas and, in some cases, tackling protesters. The crowd had dispersed and troopers had left the area by around 11 p.m. local time.
The investigation into the shooting remains ongoing, and it is not yet clear whether the officer involved will face any disciplinary or legal consequences.
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