HOUSTON (AP) – ONE U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement A police officer appeared to intentionally drive a vehicle at a Mexican construction worker in Houston and then fled the scene, a prosecutor said Wednesday, rejecting the agency’s assertion that the man stepped in front of the vehicle as he fled from authorities.
A family member of Miguel Parra Hernandez, 48, also disputed the identity of a man who ICE said was with him and had been the target of Saturday’s raid, saying he had never seen or heard of that person before.
Both questioned details provided by ICE about the encounter that fueled fiery criticism of immigration enforcement operations in Houston, where local prosecutors are already investigating a case. Fatal shooting in July by a federal immigration agent.
AP AUDIO: Texas prosecutor says ICE officer appeared to intentionally hit man with vehicle in Houston
A Texas prosecutor plans to file criminal charges against an ICE agent suspected of hitting a fleeing man with his SUV. AP correspondent Donna Warder reports.
Surveillance footage shows a black SUV speeding across a median and toward a man who was fleeing. The video does not show the car hitting him — that view is blocked by another vehicle — but it does show the SUV inches from the fleeing man. The video then shows him on the ground.
Harris County Prosecutor Sean Teare, a Democrat, told The Associated Press that the video clearly shows Mr. Parra fleeing the unmarked vehicle driven by an ICE agent. The agency said Parra Hernandez ran ahead.
“This vehicle jumped a median, entered a parking lot and drove directly on and then over Mr. Parra,” Teare said.
Parra Hernandez had surgery on a broken leg later Saturday and also needs surgery on his ankle, his attorney, Kim Bruno, said at a news conference Wednesday. He remains in ICE custody at the hospital, she said.
Harris County DA is looking into criminal charges.
Teare said ICE already had two detainees in the SUV — a Jeep Cherokee — when it ran over Parra Hernandez, and his office will receive statements from both before making a charging decision, likely next week.
His office spoke with Parra Hernandez Tuesday at the hospital.
“What I’ve seen so far indicates to me that this officer intentionally struck this person and knocked him down,” Teare said.
After Parra Hernandez was hit, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office responded to the scene with a tow truck to impound the ICE vehicle and download crash data, Teare said.
But the same ICE agent who drove the vehicle to Parra Hernández had fled the scene in the SUV, thus keeping the vehicle in ICE’s possession, Teare said. Driving a vehicle involved in a collision overwrites or erases the data stored by the vehicle, he said.
“Every law enforcement officer knows these facts. ICE, either intentionally or through gross negligence, destroyed potential evidence in this case,” Teare said.
Teare said his office was evaluating several possible charges to bring against the ICE officer, including assault with a deadly weapon.
ICE denies intentionally hitting Parra Hernández
Allegations that officers intentionally struck Parra Hernandez are “reckless” and “false,” ICE said in a statement. Parra Hernández was in a vehicle targeted by a crackdown, and when officers attempted to stop the car, the two men fled on foot, the agency said.
He “ran in front of an ICE vehicle and was struck,” ICE said.
Cesar Espinosa, executive director of FIEL Houston, an immigrant rights organization, flatly denied the claim at a news conference Wednesday, citing surveillance video.
Lawyers and relatives of others arrested by ICE during the operation Saturday denied at the news conference that the man ICE named as the target of its operation — José Mendoza-Cervantes — was even in the white van, saying they did not know anyone by that name.
Espinosa said Parra Hernandez is from Mexico and has lived in the United States for 34 years. He declined to share Parra Hernández’s status, but said he was living in the United States without authorization.
He said two ICE agents were in the room when he visited Parra Hernandez in the hospital.
Prosecutors still investigating fatal ICE shooting in July
Teare said ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not cooperate with his office during his investigation.
In July, Teare said DHS also ignored his request for information after an ICE agent dejected Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52 years old. The shooting was one at least 10 deaths involving meetings with immigration officials since the start of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
___ Wilder reported from Austin, Texas. ___
Wilder is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to cover under-reported issues.
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