ICE Agent Shoots and Wounds Venezuelan Man During Austin Traffic Stop

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and wounded a man in North Austin, Texas, on Sunday afternoon, according to Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis and Mayor Kirk Watson, both of whom spoke at a news conference hours after the incident.

The man, identified by his attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch as Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, was shot once in the torso near Research Boulevard and Anderson Square Drive, according to Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Robert Luckritz. He was in serious but stable condition at Dell Seton Medical Center as of Sunday evening.

Federal law enforcement sources told CBS News that ICE was attempting to apprehend a Venezuelan national living in the U.S. illegally with an existing deportation order, and those sources confirmed that man is Garces Perez. NPR and CBS reported his age differently, 29 and 28 respectively, and his exact immigration history had not been independently verified as of Sunday night. Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garces Perez is married to a woman with legal status, and that when she went to the hospital, "they have run us off the property." She said no one had updated the family on his custody status for at least six hours.

Chief Davis said Austin police were not involved in the shooting itself, only in traffic control, and that the incident occurred after a traffic stop that may have included a brief foot pursuit. She stressed the details were preliminary and that investigators had not yet completed interviews or received a full briefing from federal authorities. She said she didn't yet know the man's nationality at the time of her remarks.

Austin City Council member Mike Siegel gave a more specific account, alleging the ICE agent rammed the man's car, then got out and opened fire at least five times. That claim has not been confirmed by Austin police or DHS. Photos from the scene, cited by multiple outlets including the Associated Press, show a dark blue Toyota Corolla with damage to its passenger door and what appear to be bullet holes.

About a hundred protesters gathered at the scene, according to the Associated Press, with some cursing at officers holding riot shields and others honking in support as they drove past. One demonstrator held a sign reading "Nobody is safe" on one side and "ICE Nazi" on the other.

The investigative handoff that matters

CBS News reported that Homeland Security Investigations, a division inside ICE itself, will lead the investigation, with the FBI only assisting. Historically, the FBI has taken the lead on assaults on federal officers and, together with the Justice Department, has handled potential civil rights violations tied to law enforcement use of deadly force. HSI has not traditionally served as the principal investigator in officer-involved shootings.

CBS News reported in July that FBI field offices had been instructed to defer assault-on-federal-officer investigations involving DHS personnel to HSI, including cases where immigration agents fired their weapons, though Justice Department and DHS officials denied any such directive. Whether HSI investigating its own agency's shooting produces a credible outcome is an open question that Austin officials are already raising. Davis said her department would seek to be involved and was in contact with HSI, calling it necessary for "clear, third-party eyes."

DHS did not participate in Sunday's press conference and did not respond to requests for comment from NPR, CNBC, PBS, or Newsweek. The agent's account of what happened, whether Garces Perez posed a threat, resisted, or fled on foot, remains entirely unaddressed by the one party with direct knowledge. Nobody has disputed that a deportation order existed against Garces Perez, which is a legitimate basis for ICE to attempt an arrest. What remains unclear is whether the force used to execute that arrest was justified.

Part of a longer pattern

This is not an isolated event. CNBC and PBS reported that ICE arrests topped 50,000 a month in both July and August 2026, the first time the agency has hit that pace. Newsweek counted more than a dozen shootings involving federal immigration agents since President Trump's second term began. In July, ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston while he was driving his construction crew to a job site; he later died. Also in July, an ICE officer shot Johan Sebastián, a Colombian national, in Maine. The Associated Press reported that officer is an Army veteran who relatives say has struggled with serious mental health issues since childhood. Minnesota saw fatal ICE shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good last winter.

Rep. Greg Casar, whose district includes parts of Austin, is demanding a full independent investigation and immediate release of body camera footage. "Over and over, ICE has shot people and then lied about what happened," Casar said, according to NPR. Mayor Watson said he was "very angry" but "not surprised at all," pointing to similar patterns in Chicago and Minneapolis.

Whether Garces Perez resisted, fled, or posed a threat to the agent remains unknown to the public. Austin police say they don't currently know the involved agent's location, and Watson said he hopes the agent hasn't left the state. No charges have been filed against anyone, and no findings have been released. The next concrete marker will be whether HSI, the FBI, or Texas Rangers, who Newsweek reported are also on scene, release body camera footage, and whether Austin police get the access to the investigation that Chief Davis and Mayor Watson are requesting.