A man has been hospitalized in Austin, Texas after being shot by an officer of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), local officials said Sunday. Austin's Mayor Kirk Watson expressed his anger over the shooting, calling for the involvement of the local police in a "clear-eyed" investigation into the incident. The man suffered one gunshot wound in his torso during a brief foot pursuit in the Texan capital's north side shortly before 1 pm local time, Austin officials said at a press briefing.
He is at a local hospital in a serious but stable condition, the officials said, adding that the information on the incident was "very preliminary." City police officers were not involved in the operation or the shooting, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said. The officials did not name the man or release his age and nationality but an immigration lawyer, representing his family, identified him as Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan. Attorney Kate Lincoln Goldfinch said in a video published on her Instagram account that she believed he had no criminal history and had no final order to be removed from the country.
The later cited Goldfinch as saying that she did not know his current immigration status. There is yet to be a statement on the shooting from ICE or the Department of Homeland Security that oversees the immigration agency. Meanwhile, a group of about 100 protesters gathered at the site of the shooting and demonstrated against ICE's actions.
The protest was held across the street from a blue Toyota Corolla which had damage to its passenger-side door, news agency reported citing local TV, as ICE agents stood nearby. Sunday's shooting is the latest in a slew of incidents involving ICE, which has become the face of an immigration clampdown by US President Donald Trump's Republican administration. Watson, a Democrat, told the media that the shooting occurred amid a "significant increase, almost overnight" of ICE operations in Austin.
"While I'm angry and disappointed, I'm not surprised. This has happened in other cities. With the rogue nature of ICE and the chaos we're seeing fomented by ICE, there's no reason to be surprised," the Austin mayor wrote on X.
He called for an independent investigation into the shooting, with the Austin Police Department (APD) having a role in the probe. He said that the people of Austin had a "right to know what happened" and "a right to feel safe in their community". "Though APD was not involved in the shooting, I believe that there needs to be an investigation that APD assures is clear-eyed, as complete as possible, and independent," Watson said.
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