What to know about fatal ICE shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

The fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by federal immigration officers in Texas this week has reignited a firestorm over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and sparked calls for an independent investigation into what officials admit was a case of mistaken identity.

Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, was driving his construction crew to a job site in Houston just before 7 a.m. local time on Tuesday when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers attempted to stop his vehicle.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told The Hill that the traffic stop was “part of a targeted enforcement operation to arrest and illegal alien” and accused Salgado Araujo of attempting to evade authorities.

He allegedly ignored verbal commands, rammed the officers’ SUV and “weaponized his vehicle” in an attempt to run over an ICE officer, who fired his weapon “in self defense,” according to the spokesperson. Salgado Araujo was shot in the stomach and later died at the hospital.

Individuals who were with him in the vehicle have disputed that account.

He wasn’t the intended target

Salgado Araujo lived in the Houston area for 35 years, owned a construction business, had been working to obtain a work permit and was close to obtaining legal status, according to his family.

His son, Ronaldo Salgado, described his father as a “man of routine” and should have been picking up the last of his crew members when the encounter occurred.  

“My father did not deserve this,” he wrote on Facebook.

His relatives maintain that he had no criminal record and knew what to do if approached by ICE officers. They said he may have mistaken the unmarked SUV for robbers who were going to steal his tools, according to The Associated Press.

Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) said acting ICE Director David Venturella later confirmed that the man was not the intended target of the agency’s enforcement operation.

Officers believed Salgado Araujo “resembled” the person they were searching for,........

© The Hill