A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and wounded a man during a traffic stop in north Austin, Texas, on Sunday, September 20, 2026. Local authorities reported that the man was in serious but stable condition at a hospital after being struck once in the torso.
The Texas Department of Public Safety stated it received a request from ICE for assistance with a vehicle pursuit around 12:50 p.m., but the shooting had already occurred by the time troopers arrived. Austin police officers were not involved in the operation or the shooting. The Department of Homeland Security did not participate in a local news conference and did not immediately respond to requests for details.
The man was identified by immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch as Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan national. Lincoln-Goldfinch initially stated she believed Perez had no criminal history, though she later told the Associated Press she did not know his current immigration status. According to the attorney, the hospital informed Perez's wife on Sunday evening that he had been released into ICE custody several hours earlier.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson requested that the Austin Police Department's special investigation unit be involved in the probe to provide a third-party perspective, stating that an internal ICE investigation would be inappropriate. The office of Travis County District Attorney José Pompa Garza also requested that local police and prosecutors be included and asked the federal government for access to evidence.
On a broader scale, the shooting underscores tensions between federal law enforcement and local officials in Texas regarding transparency and jurisdiction. Mayor Watson and Rep. Greg Casar have specifically questioned whether federal agents involved in such shootings remain in the state for local investigations. This follows other recent federal enforcement actions that resulted in shootings, including the fatal shooting of a 52-year-old man in Houston and the shooting of a 25-year-old man in Maine earlier this summer.
The immediate day-to-day impact for Austin residents included a crowd of approximately 100 protesters gathering at the scene, where a blue Toyota Corolla with bullet holes and passenger-side damage was later towed. What happens next depends on the federal response to requests for evidence sharing. Local officials are seeking to establish a joint investigative precedent, while ICE has not yet released the status of the officer involved or the specific grounds for the initial pursuit and traffic stop.