Federal government files assault charges against Wilber Garcés, the migrant shot by an ICE agent in Austin
The criminal complaint contains the testimony of the two agents involved in the operation. One of them turned on his body camera but later switched it off
A Venezuelan man wounded by an immigration agent during an operation in Austin on September 20 was charged Tuesday by the federal government with assault, resisting authority and impeding the work of federal officers, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez made his initial court appearance on Tuesday; his lawyers were not aware of this criminal complaint at the time. Instead, they found out after he failed to show up for a meeting with them.
Garcés Pérez, a DoorDash worker, was shot and wounded by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer during an operation as he was picking up a restaurant order that he was meant to deliver. Soon after being shot he was taken to the Dell Seton Medical Center, where doctors ran tests in preparation for surgery. Instead, he was discharged four hours later and taken to a detention center two hours from Austin. The bullet is still lodged in his back.
When his lawyers were finally able to see him, “he was suffering from considerable pain and dizziness, and needed painkillers that he had not been given,” reads an email sent by the office of the lawyer Kate Lincoln Goldfinch. “Instead of providing him with the vital medical attention he needs, the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and the government are playing with his life.”
A detention hearing is scheduled for Wednesday to determine whether the migrant will remain in custody or be released ahead of a possible trial.
The criminal complaint
The nine-page document explains that the two ICE officers involved in the operation — identified by the initials L.G. and D.F. — were in two unmarked SUVs and that only one of them had a body camera.
The complaint claims that on that day they saw Garcés’s vehicle, a blue Toyota sedan, parked in front of a restaurant, and that when D.F. checked databases he linked it to the Venezuelan national and saw he had a final order of removal. When Wilber Garcés, 28, left the restaurant after picking up the food he was going to deliver, he confirmed he was the person in the photo on the immigration documents. The Venezuelan got into his car and was followed by the two agents.
The complaint alleges that shortly after they turned on their police lights, L.G. blocked the sedan with his SUV and that was when the Venezuelan stopped. Up to that point, according to the agents’ account in their testimony, they had not struck Garcés’s car.
As they stepped out of the SUVs, D.F. activated his body camera. The video, the statement says, shows L.G. in uniform identifying himself as an ICE officer. Both agents approached Garcés’s vehicle, the document says. One of them, L.G., stood in front of the driver’s door near the side mirror, and the other by the side of the car.
“Garcés lowered the window slightly and spoke with L.G. in English. L.G. asked for Garcés’s driver’s license, which he handed over. D.F. took the license and confirmed that Garcés was the person they were looking for,” the filing reads. The agents asked him to turn off the car and get out: “Garcés ignored the request to exit the vehicle and began a conversation in Spanish with L.G. about moving and parking the car. The tone of the conversation was cordial and not aggressive.” They say he then rolled up the window and fled.
“L.G. tried to avoid contact with the car but Garces’ driver’s side-view mirror struck L.G. in his torso as it drove off,” the document says. The filing includes a sequence of three photos of the agent standing directly in front of the mirror. It says the agents returned to their SUVs, turned on emergency lights and the siren, and a “high-speed” pursuit began.
At this point there is a record from the immigration officer’s body camera, which he chose to turn off when he lost sight of his partner and of Garcés, and he called for help to stop the migrant.
At a news conference a day after the operation, Garcés called by phone and gave his version of events. The Venezuelan man said he had not intended to flee. The officer ordered him out of the vehicle and he only asked to be allowed to park his car in a lot rather than leave it stopped across the avenue. “He tells me, ‘No.’ I said, ‘I’m not going to leave it here,’” he said. When the Venezuelan made a U-turn to park it, the pursuit began. The agents rammed car into car. Then the shot was fired.
During a phone call between the agents, the complaint says, “L.G. told D.F. that Garcés had tried to run him over with his vehicle and that he had fired his gun.”
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