Wilber Garces Perez faces federal assault charge after ICE shooting in Austin
Federal prosecutors charged Wilber Garces Perez after an ICE shooting in Austin, while court records give conflicting accounts of the lead-up.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
3 min read
Wilber Garces Perez, the Venezuelan delivery driver shot by an ICE officer in Austin on Sept. 20, made an initial federal court appearance Tuesday on a charge of assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer. The Wilber Garces Perez assault charge stems from prosecutors’ allegations about his attempt to leave an immigration stop; he gave investigators a conflicting account of the events leading to the shooting, according to court records reported by PBS NewsHour and the Texas Tribune.
Garces Perez, 28, faces one count and could receive up to 20 years in prison if convicted, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and court documents said. The charge is an accusation, and no conviction has occurred.
What do prosecutors allege happened before the ICE shooting?
According to the federal complaint, ICE officers saw Garces Perez’s vehicle with its emergency flashers on, checked its registration and found that he was subject to a final removal order. The complaint says he gave officers his driver’s license through a partly opened window and declined requests to get out of the vehicle while asking that his wife be allowed to collect it.
The documents characterized that initial exchange as pleasant and nonaggressive, according to PBS NewsHour and Al Jazeera. About a minute later, prosecutors allege, Garces Perez shut the window and drove away, with the driver-side mirror striking one officer in the torso.
After a brief chase, the officer who said he had been hit alleged that Garces Perez tried to drive his vehicle into him. The officer then fired, according to the complaint. The Texas Tribune reported that Garces Perez was struck in the back.
Garces Perez gave a different account
The affidavit also records Garces Perez’s statement to investigators that a law-enforcement SUV hit his vehicle after the chase, causing it to spin before an officer opened fire, PBS NewsHour reported. The reported accounts differ over the circumstances immediately before the shooting.
The available video does not resolve those differences. The officer who fired was not wearing a body camera, while the other officer’s camera did not capture the key events during the chase, according to PBS NewsHour. The affidavit includes body-camera still images, but no public footage shows either the alleged mirror contact, the alleged attempt to hit an officer with the car, or the shooting itself.
What happens next?
Garces Perez was in U.S. Marshals custody after being moved from a South Texas immigration detention center, PBS NewsHour reported. His attorneys have separately sought to stop his removal from the United States.
His lawyer has said a bullet remained lodged in his back and that he needed medical care; the Department of Homeland Security has said he was receiving adequate care, according to Al Jazeera. The Texas Tribune reported that Garces Perez was scheduled for a detention hearing Wednesday on the criminal charge.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.