Witnesses Challenge ICE Account of Fatal Houston Shooting as Investigation Reveals Officers Lacked Body Cameras

Three men detained in the van told attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra that the ICE officer who shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo on Tuesday fired through a passenger-side window, that no officer stood in front of the vehicle, and that the vehicle showed no ramming damage, directly contradicting DHS's account that the officer fired in self-defense after Salgado Araujo rammed an agency vehicle 1. DHS has not identified the officer or released photos, video, or other evidence supporting its version, and has confirmed the officers involved were not wearing body cameras 23. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said DHS acting director David Venturella told her fewer than a third of ICE officers nationally have been issued cameras despite $20 million appropriated by Congress in April and a February pledge by then-Secretary Kristi Noem to rapidly deploy them, with DHS attributing the Houston office's lack of cameras to "back-to-back Democrat shutdowns" 4. Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said local prosecutors, not invited into the federal investigation, have spent three days independently gathering witness accounts and surveillance footage 1.