Three men inside a van who witnessed the fatal shooting of the driver, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, by an immigration officer in Houston said the Mexican man was shot through a passenger window and that the officer was never threatened, a lawyer who has spoken with them said Friday.

 They confirmed that at no point was an ICE agent directly in front of the vehicle,  attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra said during a news conference.  They also confirmed the shots came from the side, not from the front. 

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has released no evidence to support the officer's story that Salgado Araujo ignored their commands and rammed into an ICE vehicle with his white van on Tuesday, or that the officer fired in self-defense. DHS said in a statement Thursday that ICE officers were looking for a different person when they stopped Salgado Araujo's vehicle.

Texas Rep. Sylvia Garcia, whose district includes the Houston neighborhood where the shooting occurred, has said the acting director of ICE told her officers thought someone in the van, but not Salgado Araujo, had a final order of removal but did not share a name.

 After receiving a credible tip from our law enforcement partners, our officers conducted surveillance on a target's address. Weeks prior to the incident, they noted two white vans at the property,  DHS said in its Thursday statement.  On July 7, officers were almost at the target's address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop. 

DHS initially said Tuesday that ICE officers were targeting Salgado Araujo because he was living in the country without legal permission.

Rep. Sylvia Garcia speaks during a news briefing regarding her conversation with acting ICE Director David Venturella outside her office in Houston, on July 10, 2026. Annie Mulligan/AP Photo

The department alleged he was shot after he ignored  multiple verbal commands  and attempted to ram an officer who fired his weapon in self-defense. Houston firefighters said Salgado Araujo wa

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