Three Eyewitnesses Say ICE Agents Shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo From the Side. DHS Has Released No Evidence Supporting Its Self-Defense Claim.

Since the Harris County Medical Examiner ruled Lorenzo Salgado Araujo's death a homicide and DHS acknowledged he was not the intended target of the July 7 operation, the central factual dispute has sharpened into a single question: where were the ICE agents standing when the shot was fired?

Attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra held a news conference Friday and stated plainly: "They confirmed that at no point was an ICE agent directly in front of the vehicle. They also confirmed the shots came from the side, not from the front." He said the three detained men were interviewed separately and their accounts were consistent.

José Trinidad Rojas, 51, put it in writing. In a handwritten statement reported by the Washington Post, Rojas called DHS's claim that Salgado Araujo tried to "weaponize" the van "a lie," writing: "It is impossible for them to say that they were going to get run over. There were no officers in front of or behind the vehicle. They were on the sides."

What the Witnesses Say Happened

According to accounts the Washington Post published Friday, the morning of July 7 started as an ordinary workday. Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old homebuilder who had lived in the United States for more than 35 years, left home before 6 a.m. with three workers, including his brother Víctor Hugo Salgado Araujo. They stopped to buy ice and water around 6:30 a.m.

Stopped at a traffic light on Wayside Drive, the workers noticed an unmarked black SUV following them. When the light turned green, the SUV pulled onto the shoulder, accelerated past the van, cut in front of it, and hit its brakes. The SUV displayed no government markings. Salgado Araujo made a U-turn. The witnesses say red and blue lights came on only after he had already turned around.

The van moved slowly onto Canal Street, where construction restricted traffic. The witnesses told their attorney the van was traveling no faster than five miles per hour when ICE vehicles rammed into its sides and surrounded it. An agent then fired through the passenger window. Salgado Araujo was struck in the abdomen and later died at the hospital.

DHS's Account and What It Has Not Provided

DHS says Salgado Araujo "weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer" and that the agent fired in self-defense after Salgado Araujo ignored multiple verbal commands. The agency said agents stopped the van after observing it near a target address: they had been surveilling properties connected to two Guatemalan men with final removal orders and had noted two white vans at the location weeks prior.

Neither ICE nor DHS has released photographs, video, or physical evidence from the scene. The agency confirmed the officers were not wearing body cameras, attributing that to what it described as "back-to-back Democrat shutdowns" that cut off funding for 76 days. Whether that explanation holds up to independent scrutiny has not been established by any source as of July 11.

DHS initially stated on July 7 that Salgado Araujo was stopped because he was in the country without legal status. By Thursday, the agency revised that account, saying officers believed someone else in the van had a final order of removal. Texas Rep. Sylvia Garcia, whose district includes the Magnolia Park neighborhood where the shooting occurred, said the acting ICE director told her officers thought someone in the van fit that description but did not share a name, according to CBS News.

The Witness Pressure Problem

The three detained men, identified as Víctor Hugo Salgado Araujo, Daniel Tirado Pantoja, and José Trinidad Rojas Pliego, are being held at an ICE detention facility in Conroe, Texas. LULAC CEO Juan Proaño told KPRC 2 on Friday that two of the three are "inclined" to sign voluntary departure paperwork and that DHS is pressuring all three to self-deport. KPRC 2 could not independently confirm their location.

"We need them to stay. They're the only witnesses to what actually happened," Proaño said. "We need to get those statements while they're on U.S. soil."

DHS and immigration enforcement advocates would argue that these three men are in the country unlawfully, that voluntary departure is a standard legal option offered to detainees, and that calling it "pressure" mischaracterizes a routine process. They would also note that eyewitness accounts from people who were in the vehicle, who have a direct interest in a particular outcome, are not automatically more reliable than an agent's account. Witness credibility is always subject to cross-examination.

That concern deserves consideration, but it does not answer the physical evidence question. The direction from which the shot entered the vehicle, the positions of the ICE vehicles at the scene, and any forensic data from the van itself would either corroborate or contradict the eyewitness accounts regardless of the witnesses' immigration status or incentives. DHS has presented none of that.

What Is Unresolved

Salgado Araujo's family says he had no criminal record and was close to completing the process of obtaining legal status after 35 years in the United States. His son has publicly demanded an investigation.

Mexico's government has demanded criminal charges over deaths of Mexican nationals in U.S. custody, a demand reported in prior coverage of this case. No federal charges against the ICE agent have been filed as of July 11, and no independent investigation has been announced by the Justice Department.

Balderas-Ibarra said Friday: "After speaking with these men, I have no doubt that what they're saying is the truth. I know that these agents, the agency, is going to try to cover it up."

The open question now is whether the three witnesses remain on U.S. soil long enough to give sworn testimony, and whether any physical evidence from the scene, the van, the ICE vehicles, or Canal Street itself, is preserved and made available to an independent investigator before it disappears.