An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot an immigrant from Venezuela in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, local authorities said. It was the latest violent episode as the Trump administration pushes to increase deportations.

The injured man, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was taken to a hospital, but his wife was not allowed to see him during the afternoon, said Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an immigration lawyer who said at the hospital that she is now representing him and his family.

On Sunday evening, the wife of Garces Perez was told by representatives of the hospital that he had been released, hours earlier, into ICE custody. Lincoln-Goldfinch added that they did not know where he was.

The violence in Northwest Austin was the second ICE shooting to occur in Texas since July. The shooting added to a tally of violent interactions between people in cars and federal agents. More than 20 people have been shot since September, nearly all of them in their cars, and some fatally.

President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts have become less public, but more targeted, since two civilians were shot and killed during a crackdown in Minneapolis in January.

It was unclear whether Garces Perez had been the target of an immigration operation. He was shot inside a blue Toyota Corolla, and according to his wife, he had been delivering for DoorDash.

At a news conference Sunday, city officials said the Northwest Austin area is home to many Latino residents and has had a recent surge in immigration activity.

Local authorities said that many details about what led up to the shooting and the moments after it remained unclear. Officials from ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to several requests for comment.

In a statement, the Texas Department of Public Safety said that it had received a request for assistance from ICE at around 12:50 p.m. local time regarding a vehicle pursuit involving a blue Toyota Corolla. The shooting took place before troopers arrived.

After the shooting, Garces Perez called his wife, Elizdar, crying, to say that he was in pain after immigration agents had fired at him in the vehicle, she said in an interview in Spanish. When she got to the scene under a highway overpass in Northwest Austin, officers told her he had already been taken to a hospital, she said.

Protesters quickly descended upon the scene of the shooting Sunday, where more than 200 people shouted in English and Spanish at federal, state and local officers.

Videos on social media that were verified by The New York Times did shed some light on what happened.

A video livestreamed on Facebook just before 12:50 p.m. local time captures audio of sirens blaring and tires screeching as the camera whips around to show the Corolla driven by Garces Perez and an unmarked Ford SUV driven by a federal immigration officer. Both vehicles are stopped and facing in opposite directions.

The video then shows an officer exiting the driver’s side of the unmarked SUV and circling around to the back passenger side of the Toyota Corolla. The immigration officer remains to the side of the vehicle as it rolls forward slightly.

Three gunshots ring out, and the Toyota continues rolling forward slowly before coming to a stop. The video then shows the officer running to the driver’s side of the vehicle.

Footage recorded moments later shows two bullet holes in the Toyota’s back passenger window, as well as a large dent on the front passenger door. It also shows Garces Perez remaining seated in the driver’s seat, applying pressure to his left shoulder with his right hand.

An officer wearing a vest marked “ERO” — denoting the Enforcement and Removal Operations branch of ICE — then walks from the unmarked SUV back to the driver’s side of the Toyota Corolla, holding a phone to his ear. He does not appear to administer first aid to the driver.

Another video, shared with the Times by a local official, was filmed minutes after the gunshots rang out and shows Garces Perez still sitting in the Toyota, continuing to hold his shoulder without any signs of medical assistance. A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper and an Austin police officer help remove him from the vehicle, and an ICE officer places him in handcuffs.

The video then shows officers sitting him down on the curb. He appears to be bleeding from a wound to his upper left back. An Austin police officer then puts on gloves, but the footage does not show any of the officers providing medical care.

“I’m very angry about this,” Mayor Kirk Watson of Austin said at the news conference. But, he added, “I’m not surprised at all. It’s happened in other cities with the nature of ICE and the way ICE is doing its business these days and the chaos that we see it performing and fomenting.”

Six people, including three U.S. citizens, have been killed in shootings involving immigration agents since Trump took office in January, nearly all of which involved officers firing at people in vehicles.

Months before the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, a 23-year-old American man named Ruben Ray Martinez was shot and killed by an ICE officer in South Padre Island, Texas.

Watson and other city officials called on federal authorities to be open and truthful about the shooting. Information initially reported by DHS in other shootings has, in some cases, proven to be inaccurate.

“There is a reason that people in Austin and across the country are deeply suspicious of anything that ICE has said, and there is a reason that people are hurting right now when they hear about this having happened in their city, even before they know all the facts,” said Rep. Greg Casar, who represents the area in Congress.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Christina Morales, Lauren McGaughy and Devon Lum/Lauren McGaughy
c. 2026 The New York Times Company