The FBI sought a search warrant to seize plastic bags with  crystal-like substances  inside the van of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was fatally shot by an immigration agent last week. The FBI said it suspects methamphetamine, but the lawyer representing Salgao Araujo's brother on Thursday said it was granulated salt.

 After consulting with my client and his family, our understanding is that this was granulated salt, which is paired with lemon and water as a homemade electrolyte mix used by outdoor workers in extreme Texas heat, not methamphetamine or any other illicit substance,  said Ruby Powers, a Houston immigration attorney representing Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, who was the front passenger inside the van.


Powers said in a statement on Thursday that she is asking the FBI to expedite the testing so  their names can be cleared.

 But no test result, whatever it ultimately shows, will change the fact that deadly force was used against Lorenzo,  Powers said.  You cannot shoot first and ask questions later. 

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who had lived and worked in Houston for nearly 35 years, had no criminal record, according to officials and available public records. His family said he was in the final stages of obtaining legal status through his children, who are U.S. citizens.

The 52-year-old man was also not the intended target of the ICE operation that led to his fatal shooting on July 7, according to U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, who said she got that information from acting ICE Director David Venturella.

A spokesperson for the FBI's Houston office, which is investigating whether there was an assault on a federal law enforcement officer, referred questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas, which didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

An application for an FBI search warrant alleged that there were  small clear plastic bags  in Salgado Araujo's van containing white  crystal-like substances.  FBI Special Agent David McNeilly, who filed the application, then wrote that he believed the substances could be methamphet

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