Houston Mayor John Whitmire vowed Friday to “pursue an independent and transparent” local investigation into Tuesday’s deadly ICE shooting but said federal control over evidence is proving difficult to overcome.
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Whitmire said he directed Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz to be “proactive” in pursuing an investigation amid witness statements that contradict ICE’s official account of the fatal shooting of 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.
Diaz has a meeting with Houston’s FBI bureau chief next week, Whitmire said, adding that the chief asked the federal agency to “start sharing information.”
“Our hands have been tied, but I’ve instructed the chief [and] city attorney to untie those hands,” Whitmire said during an afternoon news conference.
Democratic lawmakers from across Texas and the country have called for an independent investigation into Tuesday’s shooting death of Salgado Araujo by an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent during an “enforcement operation” in Houston. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General is leading a federal investigation into the shooting.
ICE said Salgado Araujo, who was stopped while driving a van, attempted to run over a federal agent. Three passengers in the van have disputed that account, according to their lawyer. The men are in federal custody.
The Harris County district attorney’s office launched its own investigation into the shooting on Thursday, but District Attorney Sean Teare said his office has had limited access to evidence in part because of the federal agencies’ involvement.
Whitmire said he had spoken with Teare about the difficulty of conducting their own investigations, as the FBI is “tightly controlling” all of the evidence related to the shooting.
“They control the scene, the deceased, the van, the witnesses. So yes, they control the investigation,” Whitmire said.
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Friday’s announcement is a shift from Whitmire’s statements on Wednesday, when he indicated that the city and its police department were incapable of investigating Salgado Araujo’s death because “there cannot be two ongoing investigations.” HPD said none of its officers were involved in the shooting, which Whitmire also said meant they lacked jurisdiction to investigate.
Friday morning, before Whitmire’s directive, Diaz sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI stating the Houston Police Department recognized it had “no independent jurisdiction” over a potential investigation and that HPD would make all resources available to the federal agencies for their investigation.
Diaz echoed concerns during Friday’s news conference, saying city police did not have the jurisdiction or access to evidence needed to complete a full investigation.
Salgado Araujo was not the target of ICE’s operation, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, told The Texas Tribune on Thursday after she had spoken to acting ICE Director David Venturella. Diaz said information brought in part by Garcia’s questioning of ICE actions shifted the police department’s stance on whether to more aggressively pursue its own investigation.
“The facts have changed, right? So now we hear, because of the congresswoman’s great work, that the wrong person was in the van, and well, perhaps it was the wrong van,” Diaz said. “Those are concerning, and they should be concerning to everybody in the community.”
DHS has said they were given a tip from a local law enforcement partner before pursuing Salgado Araujo’s van. Diaz repeatedly said the tip did not come from Houston’s police department.
Texas’ Department of Public Safety and the Harris County Sheriff’s office, in statements to the Tribune, also said they did not provide the tip to ICE.
Garcia said during Friday’s news conference that none of the ICE agents involved had body cameras or dashboard cameras inside the unmarked car the agents used to pull over Salgado Araujo’s car.
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