ICE agent shoots Venezuelan national in Austin; investigation shifts to agency itself

On a Sunday afternoon in north Austin, a federal immigration agent fired at least once into a man's torso, leaving him hospitalized with serious injuries and raising immediate questions about how the agency investigates itself. The man, identified by his attorney as Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan national, was working a DoorDash delivery when the shooting occurred shortly before 1 p.m. He was struck in the torso and transported to Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas, where he remained in serious but stable condition. Within hours, he was transferred into ICE custody.

Garces Perez's attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said her client had entered the United States lawfully, though she declined to comment on his current immigration status. What is known is that ICE agents were conducting an operation to apprehend a Venezuelan man living in the country illegally and subject to a deportation order—a description that matched Garces Perez. According to Austin City Council member Mike Siegel, an ICE officer rammed the man's vehicle, then exited his federal car and fired at least five times. Damage to the passenger-side door of Garces Perez's dark blue Toyota Corolla and what appeared to be bullet holes were visible at the scene.

The immediate aftermath revealed a family cut off from information. Lincoln-Goldfinch said that when she and family members rushed to the hospital, law enforcement ordered them off the property and prevented them from standing on the driveway. Garces Perez's wife was denied meaningful updates about his condition or whereabouts during the approximately six hours he was initially held. "We are deeply concerned that his wife and family have not been permitted to see him and have not received a meaningful update regarding his current condition or whereabouts," Lincoln-Goldfinch told CBS News. The attorney also noted that Garces Perez had called his wife from his car while "yelling in pain." DoorDash confirmed he was in the middle of a delivery when shot and said it was investigating.

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said the shooting may have involved a foot pursuit but cautioned that information was preliminary at that stage. Both Davis and Austin Mayor Kirk Watson confirmed that local police were not involved in the shooting. Watson, speaking at a Sunday news conference, said he was "very angry" about the incident but "not surprised" given prior ICE-related shootings in other cities. He questioned whether ICE possessed the credibility to investigate itself and called for local officials to be involved in the probe. "Austinites have a right to know what happened," he said.

The investigation itself became a point of contention. Homeland Security Investigations, a component of ICE itself, was assigned to lead the inquiry, with the FBI assisting—a notable departure from longstanding federal practice. Historically, the FBI has investigated assaults on federal officers and, working with the Justice Department, has held jurisdiction over potential federal civil rights violations arising from law enforcement uses of deadly force. CBS News reported that FBI field offices had been instructed to defer assault-on-federal-officer investigations involving Department of Homeland Security personnel to HSI, including cases in which immigration agents discharged weapons, though Justice Department and DHS officials denied a formal policy change had occurred. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for details.

U.S. Representative Greg Casar, whose district includes parts of Austin, called for transparency and accountability. "The horror has come to our city: ICE has shot a person in Austin this morning," he wrote on social media, demanding a full independent investigation, immediate release of body camera footage, and accountability for any officer who broke the law. James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for Texas Senate in November, echoed the call for an independent probe, noting that previous incidents had shown the agency could not be trusted to report all facts.

The shooting is the latest in a series of controversial ICE-involved incidents. In July, an ICE officer fatally shot a 52-year-old man from Houston after federal agents in unmarked vehicles pursued him while he was transporting his construction crew to a job site. That same month, a 25-year-old Colombian man was shot by an ICE officer described by relatives as an Army veteran who had struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and should never have been given a badge and gun. These incidents have unfolded against the backdrop of the Trump administration's push to carry out mass deportation operations, with arrests continuing even as the administration has stepped back from targeting individual cities. The enforcement efforts were widely condemned last winter following killings in Minnesota.