On Sunday afternoon in North Austin, a federal ICE officer shot 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez. At the time, Garces Perez was driving for DoorDash. The bullet has been lodged in his back ever since, and he maintains that he was denied medical care. Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, the lawyer representing him, addressed reporters at a press event on Monday.
What Happened on Sunday
Garces Perez claimed that an unarmed black SUV tried to strike his vehicle. To allow ICE agents to stop him safely, he made a U-turn beneath a highway bridge.
Instead, he said, they passed him again, got out of their vehicle and fired at him in the back of the neck.
He is not certain how many times the agents fired, but he is aware of one bullet wound. Two witnesses who work at a business near the intersection of U.S. 183 and Anderson Square heard two gunshots.
An eyewitness came across an ICE agent and a man in a vehicle who seemed to have been shot in the rear. An ambulance arrived shortly after, although the witness requested anonymity due to concerns over repercussions to his business.
The Scene on Video
A man was filmed after the shooting, soon after it happened, sitting in the driver’s seat of a bright blue sedan. He was holding his right shoulder.
On the driver’s side front door, a bullet hole is visible. A bystander in the video asks the man “They shot you just to shoot you?”
The man responds, “They shot me because I didn’t stop.”
The ICE agents, with one of their number having his face covered by a black cloth, stand alongside an Austin police officer near the vehicle. When asked whether an ambulance is on the way, one of the officers responds with “yes”.
City officials say Garces Perez was brought to Dell Seton Medical Center in stable condition.
The Hospital Visit
Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garces Perez is now being held at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, roughly 130 miles southwest of Austin. He said he didn’t receive any medical attention at Dell Seton.
When he asked if the bullet would be removed, the doctor told him “they’re in a hurry to get you out of here.”
Later on, he ended up sleeping on the floor of the Pearsall detention center, still in pain.
When Dell Seton’s security first responded to the situation, they insisted Garces Perez wasn’t present and forced Lincoln-Goldfinch and his wife to leave the property. A lawyer representing the hospital later got in touch with Lincoln-Goldfinch, saying Garces Perez had been turned over to ICE.
The Government’s Account
Late Sunday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on X that ICE is working with the FBI on the investigation into the shooting. The agency revealed that the deceased was a man from Venezuela “who illegally entered our country under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal.”.
Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garces Perez came to the U.S. two years ago using the “CBP One” mobile app created by the Biden administration. The government stopped using it after President Trump took office in 2025.
Garces Perez possessed a legitimate work permit. Lincoln-Goldfinch explained that he skipped a court hearing in his immigration case because he had relocated and the notice had been sent to his old address.
That led to his final order of removal or deportation order.
The Political Response
Kirk Watson, the mayor of Austin, said the shooting was “angry” but not surprising, given how “ICE is doing its business these days.”. He said he wanted Austin Police Department to be part of the investigation to help offer a “clear-eyed, third-party look” of what happened.
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said the city “deserves answers on what occurred” and promised transparency.
D-Austin’s Rep. Greg Casar, in a letter to DHS, asked for an independent probe and responsibility for the officer involved. He demanded the agent be suspended and stay put in Austin while the investigation continues.
He asked for the release of unedited footage, for evidence to be preserved, and for a briefing by Monday, Sept. 28. Casar demanded ICE release Garces Perez, warning that the government would be removing a “key witness to this shooting.”.
The Man’s Own Words
“They shot me because I didn’t stop.”
Where the paper stands
The paper backs Garces Perez and is against the federal ICE officers who shot him. A man turning his car under a bridge to let officers stop him safely was not a reason to fire a bullet into his back and leave it lodged there. The paper wants the truth of what happened at that intersection to be known, and it wants the officers who fired to face the consequences.
The report’s account of the shooting and its aftermath shows a man who says he was denied medical care, sleeping on the floor of a detention center in pain. The ICE agents tried to let the story end with their version of events on X, but the video evidence and the witness accounts make clear that the man was not the one who acted first. The paper is against the agencies that write their own authority, and it is against this kind of power being used against a worker in the back of a car.
The paper would want an independent investigation that includes Austin police, as Kirk Watson and Greg Casar have called for, so the people of Austin get a clear-eyed, third-party look at what happened that day.
See the video the story is built around at Houston Public Media.
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