SerpApi.Org
On July 7, 2026, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in his van in Houston, Texas, leading to nationwide protests. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Salgado Araujo tried to run over an agent with his vehicle, which forced the officer to open fire.
However, all three passengers who were present in the van at the time of the shooting have disputed this claim. In written statements to the court, Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, Daniel Tirado Pantoja, and the victim’s brother, Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, said that ICE agents rammed their van from behind and from the side before shooting Salgado Araujo.
Houston Shooting Witnesses Say ICE Agents Struck Their Van
All three witnesses were detained by ICE following the shooting and are being held at the Montgomery ICE Processing Center in Conroe, Texas. Rojas Pliego and Tirado Pantoja’s attorney, Raed Gonzalez, filed habeas petitions with the court seeking their release. Their handwritten statements about the shooting were attached to the petitions.
In the statement, Tirado Pantoja said ICE agents were never in front of the vehicle, and Salgado Araujo had stopped the van when the officers shot him. “At no moment were the agents in front of the vehicle. Lorenzo had come to a full stop while the agents fired,” Tirado Pantoja claimed. He added that an unmarked ICE vehicle struck them from behind and then struck the van on the side, forcing them to stop.
Rojas Pliego also stated that the victim had stopped the van but was still shot. “Out of nowhere, they suddenly cornered us, and we told Lorenzo to stop the van. When Lorenzo stopped the van, the officer shot him anyway,” Rojas Pliego wrote in his statement to the court. He went on to say that DHS was lying about Salgado Araujo trying to run over agents with his vehicle.
“[It was] impossible to say that they were going to get run over. That’s a lie — no officer was behind nor in front — they were on the sides,” he wrote. Meanwhile, Salgado Araujo’s brother revealed that the ICE agent shot the victim from the passenger side of the van. “When he shot my brother, the gun was in front of my face,” he wrote.
DHS Office of Inspector General is Investigating the Shooting
The DHS Office of Inspector General has launched an administrative investigation into the shooting to determine whether the ICE agent’s use of deadly force was justified. Meanwhile, the FBI’s Houston Field Office is leading a criminal investigation into whether Salgado Araujo weaponized his vehicle.
Less than a week after Salgado Araujo’s death, another immigrant was shot and killed by federal agents in Maine. The two incidents led to increased scrutiny of ICE and sparked widespread protests against the agency.
Meanwhile, Rojas Pliego, Tirado Pantoja, and Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo are trying to apply for a U visa, which would allow them to remain in the country while they assist law enforcement in the investigation. A federal judge has already ordered that Rojas Pliego cannot be deported while his petition is pending.
