Houston – The top prosecutor in the Houston area, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, told CBS News Tuesday his office is “more than prepared” to prosecute federal immigration agents if it finds criminal wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a Mexican immigrant last week.
Teare said his office is conducting an investigation into the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on July 7, saying local investigators have issued “dozens” of subpoenas.
The county prosecutor said he launched an “independent, transparent investigation” of the shooting because the community deserved it.
“As we go forward, and if the case and the evidence directs us that criminal wrongdoing occurred, we are more than prepared to file criminal charges against the people, regardless of whether or not they are federal agents or civilians,” Teare said during an interview in his Houston office. “You can’t come into our community, take someone’s life, and then hide behind a badge.”
Separately, Houston Police Chief J. Noe Diaz Jr. is asking the Texas Rangers to launch an independent investigation of the shooting, CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV reports.
Diaz said he and Houston Mayor John Whitmire want the Rangers involved to keep the process independent.
“Mayor Whitmire and I are asking for the Texas Rangers to conduct their own investigation which will ensure it is independent and transparent. This has been done in previous cases,” Diaz said.
The Department of Homeland Security has claimed that Salgado Araujo weaponized his van during a traffic stop, prompting an ICE agent to shoot him. The department said Salgado Araujo was in the U.S. illegally but admitted the ICE agents who encountered him were initially looking for a different person.
Salgado Araujo’s family has strongly disputed DHS’ allegations, calling him a loving father who had lived in the U.S. for over three decades. Less than a week after his fatal shooting, an ICE officer shot and killed another driver in Maine.
The FBI has said it is investigating the incident in Houston, but as a potential assault on a federal agent. The DHS Office of Inspector General, which investigates shootings by agency employees, is also conducting its own probe.
Local investigators are looking at several possible crimes, Teare told CBS News, including murder, criminally negligent homicide and tampering with evidence.
Teare noted ICE has not provided his office with support or information to aid the probe, saying local investigators don’t know the name of the federal agent who discharged his weapon, a week after the deadly shooting.
“We have not received a single name of an ICE agent from ICE that was involved in that shooting, which is I can’t even begin to tell you how strange that is,” Teare added. “Even in non-fatal shootings with federal partners, we know the name of the individual that was involved that day.”
Citing his long career in law enforcement, including at the Houston police academy, Teare said ICE’s tactics “in no way resemble” the actions and training of the law enforcement agencies he’s worked for.
“It appears from everything we’ve seen that either these agents are completely untrained, or intentionally putting themselves in situations where they can justify firing into cars,” he added.
On Monday, following the fallout from the deadly shootings in Houston and Maine, ICE prohibited deportation agents from making vehicle stops in most cases, a pause that is expected to remain in place until further guidance is issued.
Teare said his office has also filed paperwork to help the witnesses of last week’s fatal shooting get visas so they’re not deported while the investigation unfolds. The men, who were in the van that Salgado Araujo was driving when he was fatally shot, remain in ICE custody in Texas and are facing deportation. They include Salgado Araujo’s brother.
Teare said that process could allow them to get U visas, which would protect them from deportation if they’re classified as victims of crimes who assisted a law enforcement investigation.
“They’re the three eyewitnesses to this shooting,” Teare said. “There are not many things that are more important in this investigation than their recollections.”
Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, which has been helping Salgado Araujo’s family, urged federal officials to commit to not deporting the witnesses.
“Lorenzo Salgado Araujo deserves a full and independent investigation,” Proaño said in a statement. “That investigation is impossible if the people who watched him die are gone.”