ICE officer who shot Venezuelan man in Texas wasn’t wearing a body camera, sources say

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Venezuelan delivery driver in Austin, Texas, on Sunday was not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting, sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News.

An ICE officer shot Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a 28-year-old native of Venezuela who federal officials said has a deportation order, in the upper torso on Sunday afternoon while Garces Perez was working for DoorDash, according to local authorities and his attorney.

The shooting was the latest involving federal agents enforcing President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and has sparked protests in Texas, as well as calls for accountability and a transparent, independent investigation.

The lack of body camera footage from the ICE officer who shot Garces Perez — a detail first reported by The Atlantic —  is likely to escalate concerns about the shooting. 

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had said earlier this month that all ICE officers would be equipped with body cams by the end of September.

“We’re getting close,” Mullin said at a press conference in New York. “By the end of September, I’m pretty sure we will be there.”

Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to inquiries on the ICE officer not wearing a body camera.

Garces Perez’s medical condition has also been subject of controversy. Following his hospitalization on Sunday, the Venezuelan man was taken into ICE custody, with DHS alleging that he’s in the U.S. illegally with a final deportation order.

Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas said Garces Perez was transferred back to a hospital on Monday after complaining about not having feeling on the left side of his body and believing that the bullet was still lodged in his back.

On Tuesday, Castro said Garces Perez had been transferred back to ICE’s South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall, noting he’s scheduled to visit the man Wednesday.

“Today, he tells me he is receiving only Tylenol and ibuprofen for pain,” Garces Perez’s attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, wrote on X on Tuesday. “He remains in isolation, on a flat bed, and without the tablet he previously used to communicate.”

Lincoln-Goldfinch filed a habeas petition seeking Garces Perez’s release from ICE custody on constitutional grounds. On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Orlando Garcia ordered Garces Perez to attend an in-person hearing on the habeas claim next Wednesday, Sept. 30, effectively blocking ICE from deporting him until then.