Austin police release bodycam footage of Venezuelan man shot by ICE officer

Austin police on Tuesday released body camera footage showing officers treating a Venezuelan man after he was shot by a federal immigration officer in Texas.

The footage captures Wilber Rafael Garces Perez in evident pain, hunched over in the front seat of his car, clutching his shoulder and rocking back and forth. An officer is later seen cutting away his shirt, revealing a gaping bullet wound in his upper back with blood streaking down. Someone in the footage is heard saying it appears to be a single gunshot wound so far.

At a news conference, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said the video documents the sequence of events from the first officer's arrival and includes interactions between that officer and the ICE agent, which she described as important to the investigation. She said officers rendered first aid and that about three minutes elapsed between the 911 call and EMS arriving at the scene.

Asked whether the ICE officer had an active body camera, Davis said she did not know. Asked whether the investigation had shown justifiable cause or what led up to the shooting, she said it was still several hours into the inquiry and that detectives were gathering camera footage from businesses and residents. She urged the community to give investigators time.

Mayor Kirt Watson said the city believes transparency is vital. He noted that although the Austin Police Department was not involved in the shooting, two patrol officers and an off-duty officer arrived after the shot was fired, and one of them rendered aid while the man waited for EMS.

Garces Perez, 28, was making a DoorDash delivery on Sunday afternoon when ICE officers in an unmarked truck sideswiped his car twice, according to his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch. He was shot and taken to a hospital, then released into ICE custody with a bullet still in his back. Lincoln-Goldfinch said in a social media video Tuesday that he remained in a lot of pain and was being held at a federal detention facility in Pearsall, in remote South Texas.

She said he returned to the hospital Monday evening after complaining of pain and was taken back into ICE custody around midnight. A federal judge ordered him to appear in court next week following a lawsuit seeking to stop his removal from the United States.

Texas Democratic U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said on social media that he planned to visit Perez on Wednesday to check on his condition and demand his release. He has joined other members of his party in sharply criticizing the shooting, which occurred amid a surge in ICE enforcement during President Donald Trump's second term. The encounter has also sparked protests in Austin, including a gathering outside the Texas Capitol on Monday night.