Austin ICE shooting: Abbott comments on incident during Gainesville event
Gov. Abbott on Austin ICE shooting
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott responds to a reporter question concerning a shooting involving an ICE officer and a Venezuelan man in Austin. Abbott was speaking at an affordability roundtable in Gainesville, Texas.
AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says he is "catching up on the details" following a shooting in Austin involving an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer and a Venezuelan man.
His brief remarks are perhaps his first public comments about the incident.
RELATED COVERAGE: Austin ICE shooting: Federal judge grants emergency order to stop man's deportation
Abbott on Austin ICE shooting
What they're saying:
Abbott answered a reporter's question about the shooting while at an affordability roundtable in Gainesville, Texas.
Hinojosa on Austin ICE shooting
State Rep. Gina Hinojosa on Austin ICE shooting
Democratic gubernatorial candidate and state Rep. Gina Hinojosa spoke about the shooting during a press conference in Houston concerning AI in schools.
The other side:
State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, Abbott's Democratic opponent in the Texas governor's race, spoke about the shooting during her press conference in Houston concerning AI in schools.
"I've never, I can't remember ever seeing a situation where even a murder would be treated so inhumanely, where this man with a bullet lodged in his back, put there by ICE, spent the night on the floor of a cell without medical attention, without pain medication," Hinojosa said. "That is a level of depravity that I don't know that we've even seen from ICE."
She continued to push for Wilber Rafael Garces Perez to receive medical care, as well as accountability and transparency.
"Part of the problem is there's not transparency in what happens. When law enforcement, especially, is involved in a shooting, there has to be accountability, there has to be transparency," Hinojosa said. "In the state of Texas, we require dash cams, body cams for all our state DPS officers. These same requirements should be in place for federal officers who have this immense power. We know these ICE agents frequently don't have the training they need and the result we have seen is that communities are being terrorized and people are dying and it needs to stop, but the urgency for the moment is making sure that man gets the medical care he needs."
Hinojosa had previously made statements on social media Sunday calling for a "full and transparent investigation into what happened" and again on Monday calling ICE's alleged treatment of Perez "cruel and unusual" and a "depraved new low at ICE".
What happened in the ICE shooting on Sept. 20 in Austin?
The backstory:
It's still not clear exactly what happened during the law enforcement operation before the ICE agent opened fire in North Austin.
Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Rob Luckritz said emergency crews were notified of a reported shooting at about 12:56 p.m. in the 8000 block of Anderson Square.
Paramedics arrived within about 3 1/2 minutes and found an adult man with a gunshot wound. The man was transported to a local trauma center in serious but stable condition.
APD Chief Lisa Davis said the shooting involved a federal agent and later confirmed she had been told the agent was with ICE. Austin police were not involved in the shooting.
RELATED COVERAGE: Austin ICE shooting: Agent was not wearing bodycam, reports say
FULL VIDEO: Man shot by ICE agent in North Austin
A witness to the ICE shooting in North Austin provided video after the shooting. In the video, captured by Nedavia Bolanos, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez can be seen sitting in the driver's seat. He is later moved to the ground where you can see law enforcement cutting his shirt to treat a bullet hole near the back of his neck. (Credit: Nedavia Bolanos via Storyful)
The man shot has been identified as Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a Venezuelan national, by immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, who is representing Perez and his family.
Perez told Lincoln-Goldfinch that he was driving for DoorDash on Sunday when an unmarked car sideswiped him. He did not know it was ICE.
He told Lincoln-Goldfinch that he did a U-turn under the highway and was then sideswiped again. He then said the agents got out of the unmarked car and shot him in the back of the neck. They then pulled him from the car.
RELATED COVERAGE: Austin ICE shooting: New details released on man shot by ICE agents
Lincoln-Goldfinch said there was no foot chase. However, ICE said there was a foot chase.
DHS officials have confirmed that Perez is from Venezuela and say he entered the country illegally and had a final order of removal.
Perez was taken into federal custody to the South Texas ICE processing center in Pearsall, but has since been taken back to the hospital, according to Rep. Joaquin Castro.
The Source: Information in this report comes from a Sept. 22 affordability roundtable in Gainesville, Texas, a Sept. 22 press conference in Houston on AI schools, and previous reporting by FOX 7 Austin and FOX Local.