A disturbing video has captured the moment a federal immigration agent shot and wounded a man in Austin, Texas.
The video shows a woman filming herself inside her car as sirens wail in the background, followed by the screech of tires.
The woman then turns the camera toward a blue Toyota Corolla that appears to have been T-boned by a larger SUV. A person who appears to be a federal immigration agent steps out of the SUV before three shots are heard being fired in rapid succession.
The blue Toyota, riddled with bullet holes, then rolls forward as the apparent federal immigration agent runs after it until the car comes to a stop again.
Video and images from the scene show the blue Toyota riddled with bullet holes and abandoned by the roadside, with yellow police tape cordoning off the area. Two bullet holes are visible in the rear passenger-side window.
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said that the shooting occurred after a “small foot pursuit,” although she cautioned that the information was preliminary and that local authorities had few details about what happened.
The injured man has been identified as Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a 28-year-old immigrant from Venezuela. Immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, who was at the hospital, said she is now representing Garces Perez and his family.
Garces Perez was transported to a hospital and was in serious but stable condition, The New York Times reported, citing city officials.
Lincoln-Goldfinch said she and Garces Perez’s wife were not allowed to see him at the hospital, and only learned Sunday evening that he had been released hours earlier into ICE custody, according to the Times.
It was not immediately clear whether Garces Perez had been targeted in an immigration operation.
The DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sunday’s shooting is the latest involving an ICE agent in Texas since July, when a federal immigration officer shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston as he was on his way to work; he later died at a hospital from his injuries.
Federal officials later confirmed that he was not the person ICE agents were seeking in the operation.
Federal immigration agents have shot at more than 20 people since Donald Trump took office in January 2025, according to the Times. Six people, three of them U.S. citizens, have been killed in the shootings, most of which involved agents firing at people inside vehicles.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said during a 4 p.m. press briefing that he was “very angry” about the incident, but “not surprised at all.”
“It’s happened in other cities with the nature of ICE and the way ICE is doing its business these days and the chaos that we see it performing and fomenting,” he added.
Democratic Texas Rep. Greg Casar, meanwhile, demanded a “full, independent investigation” and called on ICE to release body camera footage immediately.
