The federal immigration officer who shot a Venezuelan man in Austin was not using a body camera during the Sunday incident, according to news reports.
The recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recruit — who has not been publicly identified — was issued a body camera but was not wearing it when he fired at Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, according to The Atlantic, The Washington Post and NBC News, which quoted unnamed current and former officials with the Department of Homeland Security.
It’s not clear why the ICE officer was not using the device during the shooting, which left the 28-year-old man with a bullet lodged to his back. Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another ICE officer involved in Garces Perez’s arrest did use his body camera, but its footage didn’t capture the shooting, according to NBC News.
“You need to answer why your agents are not turning their body cams on,” Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, the injured man’s attorney, told DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin in a Tuesday post on X. “Release the footage immediately!”
The reports came amid heightened focus on the availability of such devices for ICE officers, following the lack of body-cam footage in the recent fatal shootings of immigrants like that of 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo on July 7.
In that Houston case, acting ICE Director David Venturella said the officers involved in the shooting didn’t have body-worn cameras or dashboard cameras. DHS said in a July 12 statement that body cameras had been sent to more than half of the field offices and the rest would receive them in the next 60 days.
Earlier this month, Mullin said the agency was “on track by the end of September” to equip all officers who are in the field with a body camera.
“It’s for our safety and the public safety, too,” he added at a news conference.
ICE policy also gives the agency critical control over what to release in cases of severe or fatal use of force, saying that such footage would only be made public if “it is in the best interests of the agency.”
On Sunday, Garces Perez was working as a DoorDash delivery driver when he was shot by an ICE officer during a traffic stop in North Austin, which included a brief vehicle pursuit.
Lincoln-Goldfinch said he entered the U.S. legally in 2024 via the CBP One app and applied for asylum. But the man missed his immigration court hearing after the notice was sent to the wrong address, leading to a final order of removal. The attorney added that his work permit expired in December.
A day after the shooting, Garces Perez said an unmarked SUV sideswiped him twice before he realized that ICE officers were trying to pull him over. He said he did a U-turn under a freeway underpass when the SUV struck his blue Toyota Camry. That’s when the SUVs turned on their lights and sirens, he added.
Garces Perez said he then asked the officers if he could stop somewhere safer. He said an officer told him no, then he felt one shot to his back.
On Tuesday, DHS said the shooting followed a “dangerous attempt to evade arrest.”
“Resisting officers and evading arrest is dangerous for our officers, illegal aliens, and the public,” the department’s statement said. “We remind the public that resisting officers and evading arrest is a felony and a federal crime.”
Meanwhile, Garces Perez’s attorneys have filed a petition to block his deportation and get him out of ICE detention. A federal judge set a hearing in San Antonio on Sept. 30 for the case and ordered Garces Perez to make an appearance.
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