Lawyer says videos contradict officials’ account of Austin ICE shooting

An attorney for the Venezuelan immigrant shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Austin, Texas, disputed authorities’ initial account of the encounter on Sept. 21, saying video footage does not show a foot pursuit before the officer opened fire.

Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, who represents 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, said he remained detained at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas, with a bullet still lodged in his body. During a call from detention played on speakerphone at a Sept. 21 news conference, Garcés Pérez denied running from officers before he was shot.

"There was never a foot chase," Garcés Pérez said in Spanish. "I never got out of the vehicle."

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said on Sept. 20 that preliminary information indicated the shooting followed a "small foot pursuit."

The competing accounts are fueling demands for an investigation independent of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. DHS has said its Homeland Security Investigations division is leading the inquiry with assistance from the FBI.

The department has faced scrutiny over its descriptions of other shootings involving immigration officers, including a Minnesota encounter in which an ICE officer now faces criminal charges alleging he…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/