On Tuesday in Houston, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. This incident marks the latest in a troubling pattern of shootings by ICE officers, who have previously claimed that their victims attempted to run them over.
Early Tuesday morning, Salgado Araujo was transporting three men to a work site when he became aware of an unmarked vehicle trailing them. According to an interview conducted by Texas Tribune with attorney Hugo Balderas Ibarra, who is representing two of the passengers in Salgado Araujo’s van, surveillance footage captured key moments leading up to the shooting. The video shows an unmarked vehicle maneuvering into oncoming traffic to overtake Salgado Araujo’s white van, where an agent opened the passenger door.
“My clients have consistently stated that at no point did an agent position themselves in front of the vehicle or place themselves in a hazardous location,” Balderas-Ibarra stated during a press conference on Friday.
The shooting of Salgado Araujo is the 21st incident involving firearm use by immigration officers since President Donald Trump began his second term. Notably, of those incidents, four individuals were shot in Minnesota, with two fatalities.
Many cases, including the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Preti, feature video evidence that contradicts the narrative provided by the government. Despite this, federal authorities have routinely avoided thorough investigations into the use of force by law enforcement.
In most scenarios, it is federal agents who have shot and killed individuals in vehicles. Experts in policing and use of force have long advised law enforcement not to position themselves in front of vehicles or fire at them unnecessarily.
Jeffrey Alpert, a police researcher at the University of South Carolina who has taught at the National Academy of the FBI and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, noted, “Most policies across the country dictate that officers should not fire at vehicles unless absolutely necessary. However, when officers are initiated into this crisis, they may lose the opportunity to exercise that last resort.”
U.S. Department of Justice Use of Force Policy
The Department of Justice stipulates that “a firearm should not be discharged solely to disable a moving vehicle unless (1) a person within the vehicle poses a deadly threat to the officer or others by means other than the vehicle; or (2) the vehicle is being operated in a manner that could result in serious injury or death, and when no other apparent options for protection exist.”
On July 1, ICE agents shot Clemente Lara Hernandez in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as he attempted to flee from officers. An ICE spokesperson claimed the shooting occurred after Lara Hernandez “weaponized” his vehicle by ramming a police sedan. However, surveillance footage obtained depicts Lara Hernandez driving around the ICE vehicle while agents break the driver’s side window and fire into the car as it attempts to escape.
During the September immigration surge known as “Operation Midway Blitz,” ICE agents shot and killed 38-year-old Silverio Villegas Gonzalez in the Chicago area. Authorities stated that Villegas-Gonzalez had struck an officer with his car and dragged him, causing severe injury. However, video evidence raises questions about whether the officer was truly attacked, especially as one officer remarked that the injuries were “not serious.”
The incident in which ICE officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed Good marked the ninth shooting incident in just four months, with all parties involved traveling in vehicles. While some of these shootings have been recorded, not all incidents have captured footage.
In December, ICE agents shot at Juan Carlos Rodriguez Romero in St. Paul while he attempted to evade arrest. The Department of Homeland Security accused Rodriguez Romero of ramming multiple officers with his vehicle, claiming the agents were acting in self-defense. Nonetheless, eyewitness accounts conflicted with the official story. Although initially charged with assaulting a federal officer, the charges were dropped six months later due to a lack of sufficient evidence, and no video has surfaced from the incident.
Despite the serious nature of these incidents, the federal government has offered little oversight regarding the shootings, failing to disclose the identities of the officers involved. In one recent case, ICE has initiated an investigation into two officers accused of providing false statements after one agent, Christian Castro, allegedly shot and killed Julio Sosascelis in north Minneapolis. Castro now faces state charges.
“Without discipline and accountability, such behavior becomes habitual,” Alpert observed. The family of Salgado Araujo is calling for an independent investigation into his death, emphasizing the need for transparency and justice.
