ICE officer shot DoorDash driver in Austin without body camera active
An ICE officer who shot Venezuelan man Wilber Garcés Pérez in Austin, Texas had been issued a body camera but was not wearing it. A federal judge has blocked deportation proceedings against the wounded man.
ICE officer lacked active body camera during Austin shooting of DoorDash driver
The ICE officer who shot a Venezuelan man in Austin, Texas on Sunday had been issued a body camera but was not wearing it at the time of the incident, two officials with the Department of Homeland Security told nbcnews.com. A second ICE officer present in the same vehicle was wearing a body camera, but the footage captured only part of the encounter and did not include the moment of the shooting, the officials said.
Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, was shot early Sunday afternoon while making deliveries as a DoorDash driver. He was hospitalised and, four hours after being shot, placed in immigration custody at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas, according to his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch. The bullet remains lodged in his back.
Federal judge blocks deportation
On Tuesday, a federal judge granted an emergency order temporarily blocking deportation proceedings against Garcés Pérez, Lincoln-Goldfinch confirmed. The Travis County District Attorney's Office also sent a letter to DHS and ICE leadership requesting that Garcés Pérez be permitted to remain in the country, describing him as "a material witness" in their criminal investigation into the shooting.
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis shared some of the first video footage obtained by the department on Tuesday evening. The material came from an off-duty officer who recorded part of the encounter between ICE agents and Garcés Pérez — including the sound of three gunshots — using a personal dash cam and cellphone. That officer subsequently alerted colleagues, enabling Austin police to respond quickly to the scene. Davis said the department is seeking additional video evidence from the public to reconstruct the pursuit that preceded the shooting.
Deteriorating condition in detention
The day after he was shot, Garcés Pérez began experiencing an inability to move his arm, Lincoln-Goldfinch said via social media. He was taken to hospital on Monday afternoon for several hours before being returned to the detention centre.
Earlier that same day, Garcés Pérez had spoken at a news conference by phone from detention, saying he was in significant pain and was not receiving adequate medical care. Lincoln-Goldfinch alleged in a subsequent social media post that after he spoke out, guards at the facility "forcibly took the tablet from his hands, revoked his communication privileges, and moved him out of the infirmary into an isolated room with a flat bed that cannot be adjusted like a medical bed."
He was transferred to hospital around 5 p.m. after losing movement in his arm. "Wilber reports that he was handcuffed, shackled at the ankles, placed in a waist chain, and handled roughly during that transfer," Lincoln-Goldfinch wrote.
Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garcés Pérez told her on Tuesday morning that doctors had spoken to him about his care and administered morphine for pain relief. "We now understand that the gunshot fractured his clavicle and that he has significant swelling and is wearing a sling," she wrote, adding that the cause and extent of the arm movement loss remained unclear.
Garcés Pérez was discharged from hospital around midnight and returned to the detention centre, where he is receiving Tylenol and ibuprofen. "He remains in isolation, on a flat bed, and without the tablet he previously used to communicate," Lincoln-Goldfinch said. She called for the immediate restoration of his communication privileges, provision of a proper medical bed, and his immediate release.
Lawmakers demand release
Representative Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, stated on social media that "despite losing movement on his left side and having a bullet lodged next to his spine, ICE has forced Wilber Rafael out of the hospital and back to the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas." Castro and Representative Greg Casar, D-Texas, said they would visit Garcés Pérez on Wednesday to check on his condition and demand his release.
A DHS spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday evening that Garcés Pérez was in stable condition and in federal custody pending removal from the United States. A senior administration official told NBC News on Monday that Garcés Pérez had no criminal history beyond being in the country without authorisation.
Attorney disputes deportation basis
According to Lincoln-Goldfinch, Garcés Pérez entered the United States legally and was in the process of seeking asylum. She said he had filed a change of address with immigration court, but received a notice to appear at his old address and never received it. Because he missed the hearing, he was ordered deported in absentia.
Lincoln-Goldfinch also shared Garcés Pérez's account of the shooting on Monday. He was making a delivery when "an unmarked black truck sideswiped him," she said. He did not identify the vehicle as belonging to ICE, and as the truck gave chase while he attempted a U-turn, agents "pulled him out of the car."
DHS has previously accused immigrants involved in shootings with ICE of using their vehicles as weapons while fleeing agents, without providing supporting evidence. It did not make that accusation in the case of Garcés Pérez, nor in that of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, who was fatally shot in Biddeford, Maine, in July during a traffic stop.
ICE Director David Venturella had previously told NBC News that every ICE officer and agent would be equipped with body cameras by the end of August, and that the agency would allow the "expedited release" of body camera footage "when appropriate."
Source: Google News MT