New details revealed in court documents filed by witnesses contradict the official account of the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican man shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Houston on July 7. In their handwritten statements, two of the three passengers who were in the van Salgado Araujo was driving describe in detail how it was impossible for the agent who fired to have felt threatened because he was never in front of the vehicle.
“[It’s] impossible to say that they were going to get run over. That’s a lie — no officer was behind nor in front — they were on the sides,” wrote José Trinidad Rojas Pliego. “At no time were there agents in front of the vehicle. Lorenzo put the vehicle in park while the agents were shooting,” the other rear-seat occupant of the van said in his handwritten statement.
Shortly after the incident, ICE spokespeople defended the agents’ actions that resulted in Salgado Araujo’s death. A father of three who had lived in the United States for 35 years, authorities said the victim tried to run them over, prompting the agent to shoot in self-defense. The newly disclosed statements, however, offer a different account: an ICE vehicle struck the migrants’ white van from behind and then rammed it from the side.
“The officer shot him anyway”
“Out of nowhere, they suddenly cornered us and we told Lorenzo to stop the van. When Lorenzo stopped the van, the officer shot him anyway,” Rojas Pliego said.
The statements, first reported by The Texas Tribune, accompany the habeas corpus petition filed by the three men who witnessed Salgado Araujo’s death. That legal procedure protects people against arbitrary detention by requiring authorities to justify the deprivation of liberty before a judge. If the detention is deemed unlawful, the court must order immediate release.
Víctor Salgado, the slain man’s brother, has also asked a judge to order his release, but his lawyer asked the court to keep the petition under seal to protect his privacy, so his version of events is not yet public.
The three witnesses, also Mexican, were detained at the scene and remain in ICE custody. Salgado Araujo picked them up early on the morning of July 7 and they were heading to their job at a construction site when they noticed a vehicle following them, the witnesses said. Salgado Araujo believed for a time that they had shaken off their pursuers, but suddenly the agents boxed them in. It was then that the ICE vehicle struck them, first from behind and then from the side. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offered a contrasting version: it alleges Salgado Araujo rammed ICE vehicles with his van.
The Mexican man was not the person the agents were pursuing; their target was two Guatemalan men, allegedly subject to deportation, who were driving a similar van. DHS said Salgado Araujo ignored orders and attempted to run over an agent with his vehicle, so the officer shot in self-defense. The agents were not wearing body cameras and no videos have emerged to aid ongoing investigations.
“They already killed me”
“Ya me mataron (they killed me),” Salgado Araujo said, according to Rojas Pliego’s statement. The same officer who fired later “violently removed us, throwing us to the ground while we were handcuffed and chained from head to toe,” he added.
Raed González Olivieri, the lawyer representing the two witnesses, wrote in court filings that the circumstances of their detentions “are exceptional: those now responsible for their custody shot at them at close range.” The filing says the situation exposes them to an increased risk of physical and emotional harm while jailed. Both men have applied for U visas, intended to protect witnesses and victims of crimes who cooperate with law enforcement. A federal judge on Monday barred the government from deporting Rojas Pliego or moving him out of the district without court permission. Another judge handling the case of Tirado Pantoja ordered the federal government on Wednesday to notify the court at least five days in advance if it plans to transfer him out of the district or deport him.
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