Latest
23 minutes agoNetanyahu Answers Obama’s Belfast Attack: ‘We’re Not the Belgians in the Congo, We’re Jews in Judea’4 hours agoLifelong Democrat Sheriff Quits the Party After Locals Told Him to Leave for Backing Rogers and James4 hours agoTaco Bell Coworker’s Tip Stopped a Self-Described Neo-Nazi’s Alleged Plot Against an Aurora Hindu Temple6 hours agoParalympian Veteran Waited 5 Years for a Wheelchair Lift. She Says Canada Offered Her Assisted Death.6 hours agoGlenview Teen Shot Dead at Home: Sheriff Says Evidence Is There, Cook County Still Won’t Charge7 hours agoRhode Island Ruled Him Incompetent for 23 Years and Let Him Walk. Now a Toddler Was Stabbed in Her Stroller.7 hours agoHistorian Recounts Digging Through a Building Floor on Tarawa to Bring 11 Missing Americans Home7 hours agoHe Says He Refused a DNR for His Wife Five Times. The Hospital Put It on Her Chart Anyway.12 hours agoIDF Kills Hamas Weapons Commander Who Infiltrated Israel on October 713 hours agoTrump Calls Zelensky ‘P.T. Barnum,’ Says Biden-Era Missiles Were ‘Sold on the Open Market’13 hours agoNew Jersey Deputy Attorney General Charged With Using AI to Create and Share Child Sexual Abuse Material14 hours agoPowder-Filled Letters Hit Election Offices in at Least 15 States and Senate Offices Weeks Before the Midterms23 minutes agoNetanyahu Answers Obama’s Belfast Attack: ‘We’re Not the Belgians in the Congo, We’re Jews in Judea’4 hours agoLifelong Democrat Sheriff Quits the Party After Locals Told Him to Leave for Backing Rogers and James4 hours agoTaco Bell Coworker’s Tip Stopped a Self-Described Neo-Nazi’s Alleged Plot Against an Aurora Hindu Temple6 hours agoParalympian Veteran Waited 5 Years for a Wheelchair Lift. She Says Canada Offered Her Assisted Death.6 hours agoGlenview Teen Shot Dead at Home: Sheriff Says Evidence Is There, Cook County Still Won’t Charge7 hours agoRhode Island Ruled Him Incompetent for 23 Years and Let Him Walk. Now a Toddler Was Stabbed in Her Stroller.7 hours agoHistorian Recounts Digging Through a Building Floor on Tarawa to Bring 11 Missing Americans Home7 hours agoHe Says He Refused a DNR for His Wife Five Times. The Hospital Put It on Her Chart Anyway.12 hours agoIDF Kills Hamas Weapons Commander Who Infiltrated Israel on October 713 hours agoTrump Calls Zelensky ‘P.T. Barnum,’ Says Biden-Era Missiles Were ‘Sold on the Open Market’13 hours agoNew Jersey Deputy Attorney General Charged With Using AI to Create and Share Child Sexual Abuse Material14 hours agoPowder-Filled Letters Hit Election Offices in at Least 15 States and Senate Offices Weeks Before the Midterms
Austin bodycam shows police, not ICE agents, helping the wounded man out of his car

Austin Bodycam Undercuts Claim That ICE Agents Pulled Wounded Venezuelan Man From His Car

by
M.A. Rothman

By M.A. RothmanSeptember 22, 2026 · 5 min read
𝕏f

Austin police on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, released body camera and cellphone video from the moments after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan national, in North Austin two days earlier. The footage cuts against one of the most vivid details in his side of the story: that the agents who shot him then pulled him out of his car.

According to Fox News, the body camera video shows Austin police officers helping Garces Perez out of his vehicle, contradicting claims that agents pulled him out. The bigger question, why an ICE officer fired in the first place, remains disputed, and the officer who fired was not wearing a body camera.

What happened on Sept. 20

The shooting happened at about 12:56 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 20, in the 8000 block of Anderson Square in North Austin, according to FOX 7 Austin. Paramedics arrived within about three and a half minutes and took a man with a gunshot wound to a trauma center in serious but stable condition. Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said the shooter was a federal agent she was told was with ICE. Austin police were not involved in the shooting.

The Department of Homeland Security said Garces Perez entered the country illegally and had a final order of removal. ICE said in a statement that “This illegal alien was the subject of a targeted vehicle stop,” and noted that resisting and evading arrest are federal crimes. The agency also said his work permit expired in 2025 and does not confer legal status.

The New York Times, citing two people familiar with the shooting, reported that ICE agents checking license plates in the area found that he had a deportation order on file. Around 12:45 p.m., the Times reported, agents pulled him over while he was making DoorDash deliveries and told him he was going to be arrested, and he fled in his car. After a short chase, agents encountered him again and the shooting followed. DHS said Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI are leading the investigation.

The attorney’s account

His immigration attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, tells a different story. As relayed by FOX 7, Garces Perez says he was driving for DoorDash when an unmarked vehicle sideswiped him and that he did not know it was ICE. He says he made a U-turn, was sideswiped again, and that agents got out, shot him in the back of the neck and then pulled him from the car. Lincoln-Goldfinch said there was no foot chase. ICE said there was one.

She also says he entered the United States legally in 2024 using the CBP One app as an asylum seeker, and that the deportation order was issued after he missed a hearing whose notice went to an old address, even though he had updated it with the court. Of the shooting, she said: “Not that being out of status would justify any of this at all.”

What the video shows

Austin police released three short videos. Two came from an off-duty detective who was running personal errands nearby: a personal dashcam that appears to show a blue sedan pulled over by black SUVs with their lights on and federal officers talking to the driver, and a cellphone recording he began after hearing sirens. He then heard three gunshots and called the police watch lieutenant.

The third is body camera footage from a responding Austin officer. The beginning was muted, according to APD, “in order to protect the investigation.” The audio picks up as the officer deals with the man in the blue sedan. One officer asks, “¿Tiene armas?” and Garces Perez answers no. An officer says he “looks like one gunshot wound so far.” FOX 7 reported the footage shows a gunshot wound to his back and that he complained of shoulder pain.

Fox News reported that the officers wearing body cameras are the ones who helped him out of the vehicle. That matters because the pulled-from-the-car detail was part of the account circulating as the shooting became a national story. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson denounced the shooting at a Sunday news conference. According to the Times, Rep. Greg Casar wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin demanding unedited video and the agent’s suspension, accusing DHS of having “repeatedly lied about the facts following violent encounters involving agents.” Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza said his office and Austin police should be equal partners in the investigation and asked for access to the federal evidence, and Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico called for an independent investigation and the release of all video.

Asked about Garces Perez’s account on Tuesday, Chief Davis said she would not speculate, and that her department’s job is to follow the evidence wherever it leads.

The camera that wasn’t on

There is a hole in the record, and it is ICE’s. Multiple federal law enforcement sources told Fox News’ Bill Melugin there is no body camera footage from the officer who fired, and three DHS officials told The Atlantic he was a “recent hire who was not wearing his body camera.” Officers making arrests are required to wear one, according to those officials. In August, ICE’s acting director said the agency was “on track to equip every officer and agent in the field with body-worn cameras by the end of August.”

That is a legitimate failure, and the agency should own it. Body cameras protect good officers as much as they protect the public. If this officer acted lawfully, the missing footage is the thing most likely to keep that from being proven.

Why it matters

Every ICE shooting now arrives with a ready-made narrative, and Democratic officials adopt it within hours. Here, the first hard evidence released, from a local department in a city run by Democrats, showed one key detail of that narrative did not match the tape. What happened before the shots is still contested, and the investigation should settle it. But the rush to declare a verdict before the evidence comes in has once again outrun the facts.

The first video out of Austin did not match the story, and that should make everyone slow down before the next outrage cycle starts.

Sources

More from The Rothman Report

Netanyahu to Obama: Jews are not foreign occupiers in the land of our forefathersNetanyahu Answers Obama’s Belfast Attack: ‘We’re Not the Belgians in the Congo, We’re Jews in Judea’Pro-life Democrat sheriff backs Rogers and James, says his own party told him to leaveLifelong Democrat Sheriff Quits the Party After Locals Told Him to Leave for Backing Rogers and JamesA Taco Bell coworker's call stopped an alleged neo-Nazi plot against a Hindu temple.Taco Bell Coworker’s Tip Stopped a Self-Described Neo-Nazi’s Alleged Plot Against an Aurora Hindu Temple