Family of Man Fatally Shot by ICE Agent Calls for Independent Inquiry

The son of a man from Mexico who was killed Tuesday by an immigration enforcement agent during a traffic stop in Houston called for an independent investigation into his death.

Ronaldo Salgado, the son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, described learning that his father had been shot inside his car when he was on his way to work. During a press briefing Wednesday, Mr. Salgado held back tears recalling the moment he saw a video in which he heard his father cry in agony moments after he was injured.

“I learned of my father’s passing from a news report on social media, not the hospital, not law enforcement,” Mr. Salgado said. “He did not deserve to die.”

The killing of Mr. Araujo, 52, comes as President Trump renews efforts to detain and deport undocumented immigrants across the nation. In recent weeks, leaders have ordered ICE officials to focus more on arresting migrants, with apprehensions doubling from the 1,000 picked up each day earlier this year. ICE agents have been arresting people at check-ins with immigration authorities, during traffic stops and on the streets.

Mr. Araujo was mourned by his family as a father, husband and business owner who had been in the country for 35 years and was trying to obtain legal residency.

Details of the interaction between Mr. Araujo, who his family says was in the process of obtaining a work permit, and immigration agents were unclear. Federal authorities said that agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stopped a vehicle around 6:50 a.m. and tried to arrest Mr. Araujo, whom they described as an “illegal alien.” They said he “weaponized his vehicle” and tried to run over the agent, who then fired at him.

No evidence was immediately provided to support that account.

Mr. Araujo suffered a gunshot to his abdomen, was taken to a hospital and died, said Rustin Rawlings, a Houston Fire Department spokesman.

The authorities did not say why Mr. Araujo was being sought and did not provide video camera footage of the altercation.

Mr. Salgado and several immigration activist organizations and elected officials are asking the public to come forward with any new video or images that may shed light on what led to the fatal encounter.

Videos on social media appear to show immigration agents hovering over a man holding his abdominal area. Other images showed another man on the ground with his hands behind his back as someone screamed in pain.

“I am calling for a full investigation into the events that transpired yesterday,” Mr. Salgado said.

The Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s office is conducting an investigation. The F.B.I.’s Houston office will focus its investigation into what the authorities have called an assault on a federal law enforcement officer.

Mr. Salgado’s family and civil rights activists are calling for an inquiry that will be fully transparent.

Houston’s mayor, John Whitmire, said during a phone interview Wednesday that local authorities have no jurisdiction over the incident and that he was confident the F.B.I. and other federal agencies would conduct a thorough investigation. Mr. Whitmire also extended his condolences to Mr. Araujo’s family.

“We need an independent, transparent investigation, which I’m told by our federal officials is being conducted,” he said, adding that a local inquiry “would not be productive.”

The fatal shooting is part of a growing number of violent interactions between people in cars and federal agents.

More than 20 people have been shot since September, nearly all of them in their cars, and some fatally. Federal officials have said in most cases that the actions were justified because the vehicles had been “weaponized” and the agents’ lives were in danger.

But many accounts of shootings by immigration agents have since been contradicted by video evidence. Those include two fatal shootings in Minneapolis during a crackdown in January. In another case, video undermined the account of an ICE agent, resulting in dropped charges against the man who was shot. The agents involved in the shooting had previously been suspended by ICE and placed under federal investigation.

Juan Proaño, chief executive of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said that Mr. Araujo, who runs a construction business, had been on his way to a site with three workers, including a brother, when they came across the federal agents.

Federal authorities did not respond on Wednesday to a request for comment on the additional passengers. Mr. Salgado said he had not heard from any of the other men detained at the scene.

“How dare ICE act this violently, as though officers are above the law, and then expect the family, the community and the American public to believe anything they say?” Roman Palomares, a leader of the league, said during Wednesday’s press briefing.

Some residents near the shooting scene said that ICE agents have been a common sight in recent weeks. One resident, Katherine Cruz, said that a few weeks ago ICE agents cut her off abruptly as she drove in the neighborhood. “Unfortunately, he lost his life and I didn’t,” Ms. Cruz said.

Mr. Araujo’s sons said in a phone interview on Wednesday after the news briefing that their father had submitted fingerprints to immigration officials to obtain a work permit. “He was months away,” Mr. Salgado said.

Mr. Salgado, 29, and his younger brother Lorenzo Salgado Jr., 27, described Mr. Araujo as a father of three U.S. citizens and a humble, hard-working man who had achieved his dream of running his own construction crew. He had built his own house.

Every morning he followed the same routine, Ronaldo Salgado said in the news briefing. His father would get up at the crack of dawn, brush his teeth, drink coffee, pick up his workers and end the day by sitting by the porch with his dog after a dinner made by his wife.

“He wanted nothing else in life but to provide for his wife and see his sons become great people,” he said. “That’s how I want the world to know my father: not as someone who got shot and killed, but as a family man, a man who understood that good things come to those who put in hard work.”

Shahrzad Rasekh contributed reporting from Houston.