Harris County leaders put $2.5 million on the table for a probe into a deadly ICE shooting. County Commissioners voted unanimously on August 6 to give the money to District Attorney Sean Teare.
The funds will pay for a criminal investigation into the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. He was a 52 year old construction worker. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot him on July 7 in Houston's Magnolia Park neighborhood, on Canal Street. He died later that day at Ben Taub Hospital. The Harris County Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide.
This is an update to a story El Tejano first reported on July 21, when Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz asked the Texas Rangers to investigate the shooting: https://www.eltejanorgv.com/houston-chief-asks-texas-rangers-to-probe-fatal-ice-shooting/
ICE has not given local officials basic facts, like the names of the agents who were there that day.
ICE says agents were chasing a different immigrant when they stopped a van carrying Salgado Araujo and two other men. An ICE spokesperson said Salgado Araujo "weaponized his vehicle" and tried to run over an agent. The agent opened fire in what ICE calls self-defense.
The two other men in the van tell a different story. Their lawyers say Salgado Araujo never tried to hit an agent with his van. U.S. Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia spoke about the witness accounts. She said they are "totally different, day and night" from what ICE told the public. Two of those witnesses are still locked up at an ICE facility in Conroe. Family advocates worry ICE is pressuring them to leave the country before they can testify. El Tejano reported on July 17 that the lawyer representing two of the witnesses is facing his own felony charge in Harris County: https://www.eltejanorgv.com/lawyer-for-men-held-in-ice-shooting-faces-his-own-charges/
Teare has been trying to get answers from federal agencies since July. He says they will not turn over the names of the agents involved. Now he says he is ready to sue if he has to, maybe in federal court in Washington, D.C. "We don't know when this litigation or investigation is going to end," Teare said.
The new $2.5 million covers three years of work. Teare said it will pay for an extra prosecutor and investigator. It will also cover overtime pay, new technology, and outside lawyers if the case ends up in federal court. He made a promise about how the money will be tracked. "This is not going to be a just dump the money into our general fund," Teare said. "This is going to a specific fund that the public can trust."
Commissioner Rodney Ellis pushed hard for the funding. He said the county owes the family real answers. "To Lorenzo's family, you need answers," Ellis said. "That's the least we owe you." Ellis said the county cannot fund every case like this, but this one stood out to him. "There's something special," he said. "Something unique about this case that at least touched me."
The FBI and Texas Rangers are also looking into the shooting on their own. Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz was set to meet with the FBI in mid-July to go over the case. Juan Proano leads LULAC, a national Latino civil rights group. He said he felt relief hearing Teare promise to protect the witnesses.
This case is happening in Houston, not South Texas. But the fight over it still matters statewide. Harris County still has to force ICE to hand over the agents' names. Teare still has to build a criminal case. How that fight ends may shape how other Texas counties respond if a similar shooting happens closer to home.
Salgado Araujo's oldest son came to the commissioners meeting on August 6. He did not speak. Teare told commissioners the case is moving forward. "I can tell you, we are much closer to be able to make that determination now than we were a few weeks ago, but we're not there yet," he said. No one has said when the investigation will end, or whether any charges will come out of it.
