ICE Detains 28-Year-Old Austin Shooting Victim With Bullet Lodged in Back as Care Questions Mount
Updated
Updated · KUT · Sep 20
ICE Detains 28-Year-Old Austin Shooting Victim With Bullet Lodged in Back as Care Questions Mount
3 articles · Updated · KUT · Sep 20
Summary
28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez is being held at ICE’s Pearsall detention center after an Austin agent shot him, and he says a bullet remains lodged in his back.
Garces Perez, a DoorDash driver from Venezuela, said agents in an unmarked SUV sideswiped his car twice near U.S. 183 and Anderson Square before shooting him when he tried to pull over.
Two nearby workers reported hearing 2 gunshots, and video taken afterward shows a man in a blue sedan clutching his shoulder with a bullet hole visible in the driver’s door.
Dell Seton treated him in stable condition, but Garces Perez and his lawyer say he received no meaningful care before ICE removed him; the hospital later confirmed his release to federal custody.
DHS says the FBI is assisting an ICE investigation; Austin officials and Rep. Greg Casar are demanding preserved evidence, unedited footage, and that Garces Perez not be deported as a key witness.