HOUSTON – Mayor John Whitmire provided an update Friday afternoon on the investigation into the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, days after the incident sparked calls for greater transparency from local leaders.
Whitmire was joined at a 2:30 p.m. news conference at Houston City Hall by U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz and other local officials. Whitmire said he had met with Salgado Araujo’s family and expressed both his condolences and his anger at the situation.
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“I was chairman of criminal justice in Austin for 30 years, involved in many investigations and oversight reviews of police action. In those 30 years, which included the tragedy of Sandra Bland, Joe Campos Torres, and I could list many more, none are more egregious than the one that ICE brought to Houston Tuesday morning,” Whitmire said.
Whitmire reiterated that the Houston Police Department was not involved in the incident whatsoever. He also says the city has done everything possible to gather information about the shooting and turning it over to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
“When we learned about it, the FBI had arrived and secured the site. The FBI has all the evidence that would normally go into an HPD or other law enforcement’s investigation. They have the evidence, in this instance the van, the passengers, the deceased, and they’re tightly controlling it,” Whitmire said.
He says they have asked for the information to be shared with HPD. He is also amplifying calls for an independent investigation into the shooting.
“We are publicly stating and are doing, we will not rest until we have an independent and thorough investigation,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, who had a press conference earlier Friday, also shared some information.
She said she had a conversation with the acting director of ICE, who she says assured her Salgado Araujo was not a target of the operation.
“We have to ask ourself, then why did he end up being killed by ICE,” Garcia said.
According to Congresswoman Garcia, the vehicles being used by ICE during the operation did not have body cams, dash cams, nor any markings, sirens, or lights on them.
“What would you have done if a black SUV looking vehicle just started chasing you?” she questioned.
Garcia also says from talking to the lawyer representing the three individuals who were detained by ICE and witnessed the shooting, they each say that there was never an ICE agent in front of Salgado Araujo’s van. She also says the lawyer told her the detainees say they think Salgado Araujo was not in the vehicle when he was shot.
She is calling on anyone who was near the site of the shooting when it happened and may have video, pictures, or testimony to share it with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
“The smallest thing could be the big break,” she said.
Houston Police Chief J. Noe Diaz said although the Houston Police Department was not involved in the investigation or have any jurisdiction over the investigation, he did send a letter to the DHS Inspector General and the Special Agent in Charge of FBI Houston to let them know that HPD is ready to support their teams in any way that they can.
“We amplify the mayor’s request for an investigation to be conducted in a timely and thorough manner,” Diaz said.
Diaz was asked about what changed since Tuesday that made the city and other officials call for an independent investigation.
“Well the facts have changed, now we hear because of the congresswoman’s great work that the wrong person was in the van, and perhaps it was the wrong van, so those are concerning and they should be concerning to everybody in the community, everybody that’s a Texan, everybody who live in the U.S., those facts weren’t available then so as we move forward we will continue to listen to the community to ensure that this is getting the adequate attention, to ensure that the community knows and trusts that someone is looking at this with every single eye available,” Diaz said.
“We’re not settling to wait for an FBI report for all we know could take a year, we want answers,” Whitmire said.