Two passengers in a van when an immigration agent fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo earlier this month said that two unmarked vehicles struck them from behind and the side before they stopped, according to their written statements filed in a Houston federal court.
“At no moment were the agents in front of the vehicle,” Daniel Tirado Pantoja, a rear passenger in the van, said in his hand-written statement in Spanish. “Lorenzo (Salgado Araujo) had come to a full stop while the agents fired.”
Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, who was also in the back seat, wrote in his statement that a patrol vehicle chased them, but Salgado Araujo believed he had lost the unmarked vehicles.
“Out of nowhere, they suddenly cornered us and we told Lorenzo (Salgado Araujo) to stop the van,” Rojas Pliego wrote. “When Lorenzo stopped the van, the officer shot him anyway.”
Shortly after the July 7 shooting in Houston’s heavily Latino east side, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokespeople said an agent fired in self-defense after Salgado Araujo attempted to hit the agent with his vehicle.
But Rojas Pliego said 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.”
Excerpts of the men’s statements have been previously reported by The Washington Post. The full statements in Spanish, along with English translations, became public on Monday when they were attached as exhibits as part of petitions filed by Houston attorney Raed Gonzalez seeking the men’s release from an immigration detention facility in nearby Conroe.
Tirado Pantoja wrote in his statement that one of the ICE vehicles struck the van from behind before the same vehicle struck the van from the side. At some point, presumably after he was shot, Salgado Araujo yelled, “Ya me mataron” — they killed me.
Tirado Pantoja also said that another agent switched guns with the agent who fired his weapon. In his statement, he wrote that an agent fired multiple times.
Rojas Pliego wrote that after Salgado Araujo was shot, an agent violently pulled him out of the van and handcuffed his wrists and ankles on the ground before agents did the same to the three other men.
Salgado Araujo’s brother, who was the front passenger, wrote in his statement that an agent fired once from the passenger side of the van.
“When he shot my brother, the gun was in front of my face,” he wrote, according to attorney Hugo Balderas Ibarra’s account to The Washington Post. The brother’s written statement was not included in the most recent court filings.
It’s too enraging to continue, so read the rest as you see fit. And also fuck Tom Homan and Aaron Reitz, the new AUSA in Texas who’s out there lying about what those asshole agents did.
And then you can read this.
Religious leaders gathered Wednesday at the Texas Capitol to condemn recent ICE-related deaths in Texas, Maine and Florida and to demand that federal immigration agents end a “terror campaign” against migrants.
“We grieve every death, every act of violence, and every enforcement practice that unnecessarily endangers human life or diminishes the God-given dignity of our immigrant neighbors,” said Bishop Sue Briner with the Southwestern Texas Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
“When fear begins to shape the daily lives of our neighbors, it is time for the church to show up,” she said.
A news conference inside the Capitol brought together leaders from the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, the South Central Conference of the United Church of Christ, the National Council of Jewish Women and more. Texas Impact, an interfaith grassroots network, organized the event.
The religious leaders condemned the “grave moral evil” of deportations, detention centers and enforcement-related deaths involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and urged ICE agents and government officials to “examine their conscience.” Those who determine that their actions are immoral should “resign and find other work,” said Jim Harrington, who works with immigrants at St. James Episcopal Church in Austin.
“Following orders is never a justification in the Christian tradition — nor in international law — to perpetuate evil,” Harrington said.
Dan De Leon, senior pastor at Friends Congregational Church in College Station, invoked the Sermon on the Mount. “Jesus says, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’ Notice that Jesus does not say, ‘Blessed are the peacekeepers,’ which is what ICE alleges to be doing in our communities,” he said.
Jewish leaders turned to their faith as well: “Jewish tradition teaches that whoever saves a life saves the entire world, and conversely, whoever destroys a life destroys the whole world,” said Bettie Forman with the National Council of Jewish Women.
Amen.
Is there a shooting that ICE hasn’t lied about?