HOUSTON (AP) — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent accused of intentionally ramming his car against a Mexican construction worker in Houston was indicted Friday by a grand jury on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, prosecutors said.
The officer, Mario Alberto Morales, was driving an unmarked SUV on Oct. 10 when he struck and ran over Miguel Parra Hernandez, 48, who was fleeing during a chase through a parking lot, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. Parra Hernandez broke his leg and remains in federal custody at a rehabilitation center, said District Attorney Sean Teare, who announced the indictment during a news conference that included body camera video of the encounter and a recording of Morales calling 911.
ICE claimed that Parra Hernández ran in front of the vehicle, an account that Teare said is contradicted by the video.
“The evidence we have in this case is as clear as any I have ever prosecuted or investigated,” Teare said.
Morales, 33, is one of the few federal agents to face criminal charges for their actions on the job during President Donald Trump’s tenure. immigration crackdownalthough other encounters were investigatedincluding a fatal shooting by an ICE officer this summer in Houston.
Morales’ attorney, David Lindenmuth, said his client had committed no crime. He and ICE both said Morales did not intentionally hit Parra Hernandez and accused the Democratic prosecutor of indicting Morales for political reasons.
“Mr. Morales is truly a good man, a former member of our military, who devoted his entire life to public service, either for his country or in or around law enforcement,” Lindenmuth told the Associated Press. “To get him charged for what was so clearly just an accident, the DA’s office, the DA himself, made up a crime out of thin air.”
Teare alluded to concerns about Morales’ background but would not provide details.
Morales had worked as an ICE enforcement and removal operations agent for a little more than a year, Lindenmuth said.
Morales, charged with a second-degree felony, was not in custody Friday and a warrant will be issued for his arrest, according to Teare.
The prosecutor played
Morales’ body camera footage and 911 call
Parra Hernandez has lived in Harris County for more than 30 years and had no deportation orders or criminal history, according to Teare.
He was in a vehicle that ICE attempted to stop. He jumped out and was followed by Morales, who was in a Jeep Cherokee. Previously released surveillance video shows the Jeep speeding past a center median and toward Parra Hernandez as he fled.
Morales’ body camera footage that Teare released Friday shows the officer making a few sharp movements with the steering wheel before the SUV shook. Morales stops the vehicle, then gets out and turns toward Parra Hernandez, who is several feet away. Parra Hernandez is on the ground grabbing his leg screaming in pain.
Morales is heard saying: “He was hit by a car, brother. » We don’t know who he’s addressing.
“I was going in and I hit him with the car,” Morales said after another ICE agent arrived.
In a 911 audio recording in which Morales calls for an ambulance, Parra Hernandez can be heard screaming. Morales told the operator: “He’s fine. He’s just complaining of pain.”
Parra Hernandez told police Morales ‘threw the car’ at her
Parra Hernández told deputies he thought a police officer was stopping the vehicle he was in, but he got scared and ran away when the man started putting on a mask.
He repeatedly told deputies that Morales “threw the car at me,” according to a Harris County Sheriff’s Office incident report reviewed by the AP.
Morales told deputies he did not intentionally hit Parra Hernandez. He admitted he did not brake before hitting Parra Hernández and said he was trying to avoid another truck in the parking lot.
Body camera video indicated Morales had two other suspects in custody in his backseat, according to the report. But the deputy wrote that Morales told them there was no one else inside.
“From the beginning, the video told a different story than the one offered by the agency,” Parra Hernández’s lawyer, Kim Bruno, said Friday, adding that his client suffered not only from leg fractures, but also from nerve damage and chronic pain.
Family says ICE was searching for person who died during operation
Other aspects of the ICE account have also been questioned.
After Parra Hernández’s arrest, ICE released a photo of another man, José Mendoza-Cervantes, and said he was the target of the operation that day. ICE said he was seen getting into a vehicle with Parra Hernandez. Parra Hernandez’s family members said they had never heard of him. FIEL, a Houston immigrant rights group that works with the family, said Mendoza-Cervantes’ daughter told them her father had been dead since 2017.
Teare’s office previously said its investigation did not reveal that Parra Hernández and the man identified by ICE as Mendoza-Cervantes were in a vehicle together, contrary to ICE’s statement.
ICE has not responded to claims that the wanted suspect had been dead for years.
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Wilder reported from Austin, Texas. Brook reported from New Orleans.
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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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