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Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a man killed by federal immigration agents during a traffic stop in Houston this week, was not the intended target of the “enforcement operation”, the Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were reportedly seeking two people from Guatemala when they attempted to stop Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant who had lived in the United States for ۳۵ years, the New York Times reported.
Salgado Araujo, who was on his way to work early on Tuesday morning, was driving three other people in a white van. After the shooting, the three men were taken into custody. One of the three men has been identified by advocates as Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, the brother of the victim. The New York Times reported that he was still in an immigration detention center.
In a statement provided to the Guardian, an unnamed DHS official said officers had received a tip from law enforcement partners about their target’s address and had previously spotted two white vans at that property.
“On July ۷, officers were almost at the target’s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target,” the official said.
The statement does not clarify what happened next. Salgado Araujo died in the hospital after being shot in the abdomen, according to accounts from local law enforcement officers. The officers involved were not wearing body cameras, DHS said.
The ICE agents who stopped Salgado Araujo claimed he “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer” who then fired “his weapon in self-defense”, but did not provide evidence to corroborate that account.
It is a defense the agency has used in other high-profile incidents, including when Renee Good was killed in Minneapolis and in the shooting of two Venezuelan men in Oregon earlier this year. Video evidence contradicted both of these descriptions.
Salgado Araujo’s death will be investigated by the Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s office, according to the agency.
“He did not deserve to die,” Ronaldo Salgado, the son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
“This is outrageous to me, and this is ridiculous to hear that no one in that van was a target of any sort of investigation,” Salgado told the New York Times, after learning his father was not originally being sought by federal agents.
Salgado Araujo’s death marks the ۱۰th fatal shooting by federal immigration officials nationwide since the second Trump administration took office, a review of public reports by the Guardian shows.
Maanvi Singh and José Olivares contributed reporting
