ICE officer who shot Austin delivery driver was not wearing required body camera

What happened

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and wounded a 28-year-old Venezuelan man delivering food for DoorDash in North Austin on the afternoon of Sunday, September 20, according to accounts from his attorney and local officials. The man, identified as Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, was struck once in the upper back; the bullet fractured his clavicle and remained lodged in his body, his lawyer said. Body-worn camera video later released by the Austin Police Department captured the aftermath — officers arriving to find Garcés Pérez in his vehicle holding his shoulder before he was handcuffed and his shirt cut away to reveal the wound.

What has since become the central point of dispute is equipment, not just conduct: the ICE officer who fired was carrying a department-issued body camera but was not wearing it, and a second officer's camera captured only partial footage that missed the shooting itself, according to reporting confirmed by CBS News and the Texas Tribune. The Department of Homeland Security has not said why the officer was not wearing his camera.

The numbers

Garcés Pérez, 28, was shuttled between the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall and area hospitals twice in the days after the shooting, most recently after reporting numbness and paralysis on his left side, according to his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch. More than 100 members of Congress, led by Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), signed a letter dated September 22 demanding his release for medical care. Casar's office says this is at least the third shooting involving federal immigration agents in Texas since President Trump's second term began, following the fatal shooting of another man in Houston in July. A federal judge has set a September 30 hearing date in San Antonio on Garcés Pérez's habeas petition, which blocks his removal until then.

A policy already under strain

ICE's body-camera commitment dates to the aftermath of that earlier Houston shooting. Acting ICE Director David Venturella announced on August 8 that the agency was on track to equip every officer and agent in the field with body-worn cameras by the end of August, after criticism over the lack of footage in that fatal encounter. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin subsequently said publicly that the rollout would be complete by the end of September, a deadline the Austin shooting fell within — and, according to the agency's own body-camera policy, officers making arrests are required to activate their cameras before engaging in enforcement activity and keep recording until an incident has safely concluded, with violations subject to a written statement and possible discipline.

DHS disputes several elements of the account that has circulated about the Austin shooting. In a statement posted to its website on September 22 headlined "Correct the Record," the department said Garcés Pérez had a final order of removal issued in absentia by an immigration judge after he missed a hearing, and said federal agents conducted a targeted vehicle stop before what it described as a dangerous attempt to evade arrest. The department also said Garcés Pérez is receiving round-the-clock medical care. Garcés Pérez's attorney and family have said he did not know he was being pursued by ICE, was struck from behind by an unmarked vehicle, and had legally sought asylum after entering the country, missing his hearing because of a mailing error.

Reaction in Washington and Texas

Casar wrote to Mullin and Venturella on the day of the shooting, demanding an immediate, independent investigation, full release of unedited footage, evidence preservation, and a briefing for Congress by September 28 on whether agency protocols on vehicle stops, use of force and body-camera activation were followed. He also called for ICE's operation to leave Austin. Two days later, in the letter signed by more than 100 House members, the lawmakers wrote:

"Mr. Garces Perez is a key witness to this shooting, and given ICE's history of obscuring the facts in similar investigations, he must not be removed."

Locally, Travis County District Attorney José Garza sent his own letter to DHS on September 22 asking that Garcés Pérez remain in the country as a material witness while his office investigates, writing that removing him "would severely hinder his ability to participate" in any criminal case. The Austin Police Department and Garza's office have opened a parallel local review of the shooting alongside DHS's own investigation, which the department has said is being led by Homeland Security Investigations with FBI assistance.

What happens next

Two clocks are now running. In court, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia has ordered Garcés Pérez to appear in person in San Antonio on September 30 for a hearing on his habeas corpus petition and request for a stay of removal, which keeps him in the country in the interim. On Capitol Hill, Casar's letter sets a September 28 deadline for DHS and ICE to brief lawmakers on protocol compliance, though the department is not legally bound to meet it. Neither the Travis County criminal investigation nor DHS's internal review has a public timetable. The unresolved question that both processes will have to address is the same one raised by the missing footage: what happened in the seconds before the officer fired, and why the body camera the agency says was standard equipment was not being worn.