At about 12:50 p.m. on Sunday, September 20, 2026, a federal immigration agent shot a man once in the torso near Anderson Square and Research Boulevard in North Austin. Austin-Travis County EMS took him to a hospital in serious but stable condition. The shooting is confirmed by city officials, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Department of Homeland Security and bystander video. Why the agent fired is not known: DHS has given no justification for the use of force in any statement so far.
What is established: Austin police were not part of the operation. Texas DPS said ICE asked its troopers for help at about 12:50 p.m. in a vehicle pursuit of a blue Toyota Corolla, and that the shooting happened before troopers arrived. DoorDash confirmed to CNN and CBS News that the man was making a delivery at the time. NBC News verified a video in which “At least three gunshots are heard” as a person approaches the sedan while it slowly moves forward.
DHS's statement says Homeland Security Investigations, with FBI help, “is leading the investigation into the officer involved” shooting “of an illegal alien from Venezuela, who illegally entered our country under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal,” and that “he is in federal custody pending removal.” It does not name him. His lawyer, Austin immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, identified him as Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, and said, “he previously held a valid work permit and that, based on the information available to us, he entered the United States lawfully.” The two accounts are not necessarily in conflict: the Texas Tribune notes that this administration has reclassified people admitted under Biden-era parole programs as being here illegally. Neither version should be treated as settled.
Several things being said about the shooting are allegations only. His lawyer says agents boxed in his car and shot him through the rear window, but she had not been able to speak with him. A city council member alleged the agent rammed the car and fired at least five times. Police Chief Lisa Davis said she had heard there was a short foot pursuit, and added, “But again, this is all very preliminary.” The accounts of how many shots were fired do not agree with one another.
The investigation is the part that is already a matter of record. Homeland Security Investigations is a component of ICE. CBS News reported that having it lead “represents a notable departure from longstanding federal practice,” and that FBI field offices were told in July to defer such cases to it, which the Justice Department and DHS have denied is a formal policy change. Austin police, the Texas Rangers and the Travis County district attorney have each said they intend to investigate as well. Mayor Kirk Watson said, “If there's nothing wrong with that, they should welcome an investigation,” and, “While I'm unhappy and I'm angry about it, I'm not surprised at all.” Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) warned, “If ICE deports him, the key witness to their shooting disappears.” NBC reported that DHS “has not provided any information about whether the ICE agent involved was wearing a body camera.”
CNN counts this as part of a pattern: “At least 20 people have been shot by on-duty ICE and Customs and Border Patrol agents during the second Trump administration, eight fatally,” before Sunday. The Texas Tribune called it “at least the third instance” in Texas since March 2025 (see Federal Immigration Officers Have Fatally Shot at Least 10 People Since Trump's Second Term Began and ICE Agents Shot and Killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Houston Father of Three Driving to a Construction Job After 35 Years in the Country). This entry reflects what was known within a day of the shooting and will be updated as DHS, the video record and the investigations fill it in.
Update (September 23, 2026): the body-camera question is answered, and the answer is that the officer who fired had one and was not wearing it. Two DHS officials told NBC News he was issued a camera and did not have it on, and that it is not clear why. Federal law-enforcement sources told Fox News there is no body-camera footage of the shooting, and three DHS officials told The Atlantic the same. A second officer in the same vehicle was wearing one; it captured partial footage that does not include the moment of the shooting. All of this is anonymously sourced, and ICE has refused to answer the question directly. Austin's police chief said at Tuesday's news conference that she did not know whether the officer had a camera.
ICE's own policy, as those officials described it, requires officers making arrests to carry the cameras at all times and switch them on before enforcement activity, to stop recording “only when the incident has safely concluded,” and to give a written statement to supervisors if they do not comply. On August 8 ICE said it was “on track to equip every officer and agent in the field with body-worn cameras by the end of August, ahead of our original timeline” (see ICE Will Promptly Release Body-Camera Video of Its Shootings Only When It Decides Doing So Is in the Agency's 'Best Interests'). It equipped him. He did not wear it.
The officer is on administrative leave, which is standard and is not a finding. CNN reported, from sources, that he was a recent hire who had worked for another federal agency and finished ICE training in August 2025, training that included use-of-force exercises. He has not been named.
Video was released, but not ICE's. Austin police put out three recordings: an off-duty detective's personal dash camera and phone video, and a responding officer's body camera. The dash camera shows Garcés Pérez's car stopped at the roadside with an officer at the window and unmarked SUVs front and back, about 14 minutes before the shooting, which complicates the account his attorney gave of a driver simply going about a delivery. The phone video captures sirens and then three gunshots. The police body camera shows officers around the blue Toyota, an Austin officer asking “Is he under arrest?”, and a wound on his upper back when his shirt is cut away. Whether ICE's partial footage will ever be released is unclear.
Two early claims did not survive. Chief Lisa Davis had said she heard there was a brief foot pursuit; by Tuesday she said there was no evidence of one. And the location of the wound, given variously as the torso and the back of the neck, is now best described as the upper back, where the bullet remains lodged.
He was not deported. He is at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, and on September 22 a federal judge temporarily blocked his removal and set a hearing for September 30 in San Antonio, ordering him to appear in person. Travis County District Attorney José Garza asked DHS and ICE to halt removal proceedings because Garcés Pérez is “a material witness,” and said his office is still waiting to hear whether federal investigators will hand over evidence and allow an interview with the officer who fired. Austin police had not yet requested the federal footage as of Tuesday. Local officials cited cases in Minnesota and Houston where federal investigators withheld evidence and slowed local prosecutions. His attorney says his clavicle was fractured, that he has significant swelling and is in a sling, and that the cause and extent of his loss of arm movement are still unclear. She also alleges that after he spoke at Monday's news conference guards took his tablet, revoked his communication privileges and moved him out of the infirmary in restraints; those claims have not been independently verified and DHS did not respond to them.
DHS published a point-by-point rebuttal on September 21 which answers a great deal and not the central question. Secretary Markwayne Mullin said “sanctuary politicians and the mainstream media have wasted no time in spreading lies,” and that Garcés Pérez “has been given some of the best medical care he's ever received in his life.” The document says his work permit expired in 2025 and that a work permit does not confer status, that he is receiving pain medication around the clock, that he slept on a bed, and that he “was the subject of a targeted vehicle stop.” It concedes the removal order was issued in absentia: “Yes. This is why aliens must show up to their removal proceedings.” It does not say why the officer fired. Investigators have not determined whether the shooting was justified.
Update (September 29, 2026): federal prosecutors charged Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, the man who was shot, with one count of assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer, which carries up to 20 years in prison. The complaint, filed September 28 in the Western District of Texas, alleges his side mirror struck an officer as he drove off and that he later tried to hit the same officer, who then fired. U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons said Garcés Pérez tried to strike the officer with his car, “causing the officer to fire his pistol.” His own account, recorded in the government's affidavit, is that an SUV struck his car and spun it before he was shot in the back. The affidavit also describes the initial stop as “pleasant and not aggressive.” The charge comes while the shooting itself is still being investigated by a branch of ICE, and while the Travis County district attorney is seeking evidence for a possible state case against the officer. A Reuters review in July found that 31 percent of completed federal cases charging people with attacking or impeding federal officers had been dismissed.
Update (September 30, 2026): Garcés Pérez appeared in federal court in Austin on September 29 and is in the custody of U.S. marshals. His lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said she was not notified and found out the morning of the hearing; a separate removal hearing in San Antonio was postponed. He still has the bullet in his back. The affidavit includes photos taken from body-worn cameras, but no video has been released, and the complaint does not say whether the officer allegedly struck by the side mirror was hurt. According to court documents reported by KUT, the second officer turned off his body camera before reaching the scene of the shooting. KUT also reports that the sequence of events in the documents contradicts what Garcés Pérez and his lawyer had said publicly, that he was sideswiped by an SUV and shot while trying to pull over. Lincoln-Goldfinch: “this to me is just one more cruel step in the administration's actions against Wilber.” The AP notes that in Chicago and Minneapolis, people shot by immigration officers were also charged with assaulting officers, and in both cases the charges were dropped.