Lorenzo Salgado Araujo: Mexican man fatally shot by ICE was not target of immigration operation, source says

A man who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Houston while on his way to work Tuesday was not the target of their immigration operation, according to a source with preliminary details about the incident.

The shooting took place around 7 a.m. as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo attempted to evade arrest when agents tried to conduct a traffic stop, ICE said in a previous statement, describing it as a “targeted enforcement operation.” The agency did not specify whether he was the target.

Texas authorities had previously notified ICE about two individuals — neither of whom was Salgado Araujo — traveling in a white van believed to be in the United States without legal status, according to the source, prompting them to surveil the vehicle.

The agents then conducted surveillance on a target’s address, and weeks prior to the incident, they noted two white vans at the property, a Homeland Security official told CNN.

“On July 7, officers were almost at the target’s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop,” the official added.

The van was registered to Salgado Araujo, who agents determined to be in the country illegally, the source said. The ICE vehicles attempted to block in the van, which struck at least one of the vehicles, the source added.

ICE said in a Tuesday statement Salgado Araujo rammed into a law enforcement vehicle and refused to follow several verbal commands before an ICE agent fired his weapon in self-defense.

Salgado Araujo’s family has disputed the government’s account, saying they believe the man, who’d been seeking a work permit and had no criminal record, would have stopped and complied with federal agents if he had known the car following him belonged to ICE or other law enforcement.

CNN has asked the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE, whether immigration enforcement agents identified themselves to Salgado Araujo and awaits response.

The 52-year-old father of three encountered ICE agents as he picked up the last members of his crew of construction workers in Houston’s East End area before heading north to finish construction on several houses, Salgado Araujo’s oldest son recounted Wednesday. Because Salgado Araujo’s van and tools had been stolen in the past, he had been cautious about being followed, his son told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday.

As of Thursday afternoon, no video or photos of the traffic stop or the shooting have been released by federal officials. The officers involved in the incident had not yet been issued body-worn cameras, a DHS spokesperson told CNN.

Body cameras have been distributed to more than half of ICE’s field offices and the rest will receive them in the next 60 days, the spokesperson said, citing government shutdowns for stalling the deployment of the cameras.

Meanwhile, video capturing the shooting’s aftermath has been posted on social media — igniting an outpouring of grief and calls for evidence to be reviewed.

The DHS’ Office of the Inspector General is now leading an investigation into the shooting, according to ICE. And the FBI’s Houston field office is investigating the alleged assault on a federal law enforcement officer.

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is pursuing its own investigation and independently collecting information on the shooting, though “access to key evidence remains under federal control,” according to spokesperson Rafael Lemaitre.

Texas Democratic lawmakers, activists and Salgado Araujo’s family have called for an independent and transparent investigation into his death, with the League of United Latin American Citizens offering a $5,000 reward for information leading an arrest.

The family is also demanding Salgado Araujo’s body be returned to them, LULAC CEO Juan Proaño told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday night.

Citing Salgado Araujo’s death and those of several Mexican nationals in immigration detention, the Mexican government announced Thursday it plans to initiate legal and civil actions to “protect the human rights of Mexicans in the United States.”

The case is the latest in which someone was severely injured or killed this year after being shot by a federal immigration enforcement agent. It also again raises questions about who is targeted by a nationwide immigration enforcement push the Trump administration says aims to remove dangerous criminals from the US.

Gina Danielsen and Rhonda Smith place a candle next to flowers near where an ICE agent fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo on Tuesday during a vehicle stop in Houston. Antranik Tavitian/Reuters

On Tuesday morning, Ronaldo Salgado’s mom told him his father was “in trouble,” the son recounted with CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday. They didn’t know what happened — but they suspected it involved ICE.

Salgado Araujo had previously talked with his lawyers about what to do if he was taken by ICE: He would decline to sign anything and call his son or his wife to get him released, his son said at a news conference Wednesday.

So, after hearing from his mother, Ronaldo Salgado immediately drove an hour to his father’s work site to find his van.

“Had he had been detained by ICE, he would have wanted the van to be delivered to the work site so that the other workers that were there could finish up the houses and the families could get paid,” the son said Wednesday.

After his search came up empty, Ronaldo Salgado came across a Facebook post about ICE activity in the East End area. At about 8:30 a.m., he drove there to find his father’s van on a blocked-off street but still no sign of him.

Ronaldo Salgado speaks about his efforts to learn what happened to his father 1:13 • Source: CNN Ronaldo Salgado speaks about his efforts to learn what happened to his father 1:13

“I stayed on site for several hours asking any and all officers and members of the public that were there for answers as to where my dad is,” Ronaldo Salgado told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

Then, a video posted on social media stopped him in his tracks.

“I recognized him immediately, not from his appearance but from his voice crying for help as he lay on the street bleeding out,” Ronaldo Salgado told reporters through tears Wednesday.

A wounded man lies face down and moans in pain next to a white SUV parked near a barbershop as a federal agent kneels over him while on the phone, video taken after the shooting shows. The right side of his stomach was bleeding, said Juliet Martinez, a Houston resident who recorded the video and shared it with CNN.

“He was screaming for help and screaming that he was in pain. He yelled, ‘Help me! They shot me!’”

Just moments earlier, video obtained by the League of United Latin American Citizens shows Salgado Araujo’s white van turning onto Canal Street while a black SUV follows, LULAC and Salgado Araujo’s family said.

A second surveillance video obtained by CNN shows Salgado Araujo driving on Canal Street while a black SUV drives near him on the left side. Seconds later, another black SUV drives through the parking lot of a nearby shopping center and continues to move in the direction of Salgado Araujo’s van and the other SUV.

In an updated Wednesday statement, ICE said emergency services were immediately contacted after Salgado Araujo was shot. When Salgado Araujo arrived at the hospital, he was checked in as a John Doe, Proaño said.

After hours at the scene, Ronaldo Salgado found out which hospital his father had been taken to.

“With all the hope in the world, I drove to Ben Taub Hospital, the hospital that I was born in, my brother Lorenzo Jr. was born in, and my youngest was born in,” the son said at the news conference.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was fatally shot by federal agents. From Ronaldo Salgado

At the hospital, no one could give Ronaldo Salgado answers about his father’s condition, he said. “The family has had to go through extra hurdles to do a biometric forensic verification that it is his father,” Proaño said.

Ronaldo Salgado said he later learned of his father’s death from reports on social media, which local organizations and elected officials confirmed.

He called his mom to relay the news: The man they had called “El mundo entero,” or “the whole world,” had been killed.

His cause of death was determined to be a “penetrating gunshot wound of the torso” and the manner was ruled a homicide, the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences told CNN on Thursday.

Three other men in the van, including Salgado Araujo’s brother, were detained, according to his family.

For the last 35 years, Salgado Araujo’s day began the same way: He woke up at 5 a.m., kissed his wife goodbye, loaded his work van and drove off to pick up his construction crew for work in Houston, his family said.

But on Tuesday, Salgado Araujo’s day would not end as it always did. He would not come home to eat a hearty dinner prepared by his wife, then spend the rest of the evening on the porch listening to music in the house he had built for his family.

Ronaldo Salgado wants the world to remember his father not for how he died but for his life as a family man who believed in the American dream.

Son of Houston man fatally shot by ICE: ‘He did not deserve to die’ The son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo speaks out after his father was fatally shot by an ICE officer during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday. Texas lawmakers and immigrant advocacy groups are calling for an independent investigation into his death. 2:22 • Source: CNN Son of Houston man fatally shot by ICE: ‘He did not deserve to die’ 2:22

“He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of ‘Mexican man shot and killed by ICE,’” he said Wednesday. “He deserved to live a quiet life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a husband, a father, and a job creator for dozens of men who also wanted the American dream.”

Salgado Araujo, over the last year and a half, had submitted pictures and statements from employers and loved ones for a work permit application, his son recalled, saying he was “close to obtaining his legal status.”

“We dotted every ‘i’, crossed every ‘t,’ filled every document, attended every appointment,” Ronaldo Salgado said.

His father “never wanted his name to be known by anyone outside of his family,” Ronaldo Salgado said at the news conference. “He wanted nothing else in life but to provide for his wife and see his sons become great people.”

Flowers sit at the scene where an ICE agent fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo Tuesday during a vehicle stop in Houston. Antranik Tavitian/Reuters

Salgado Araujo and his wife met when they were teenagers in Mexico, according to their son. He raised his three sons “on the idea of education taking us so far in life,” Ronaldo Salgado said. The eldest son became a teacher, while his brothers went into engineering.

Salgado Araujo ran his own construction business and “was known for his work ethic, his fairness, and his willingness to help anyone who needed it,” a GoFundMe page says. When people knocked on his door asking Salgado Araujo for opportunities, he would hire them to work with him, his son recounted.

Ronaldo Salgado said his father “only wanted to get back to work and back to us.”

“I am deeply heartbroken to see that the man who taught me the value of hard work, family values and education will no longer spend an evening on that porch,” he said.