AUSTIN, Texas — The Venezuelan man shot by ICE in Austin during a traffic stop spoke from an immigration detention center Monday and said he was in a lot of pain and that a bullet was still lodged in his back. Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, was shot Sunday afternoon by an ICE officer while making deliveries as a DoorDash driver. He is being held in immigration custody at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas. Garcés Pérez said by phone during a news conference Monday that he was shot near the collarbone and has not received the medical attention he needs. He said doctors did not remove the bullet because it was near his spine and that ICE was pressuring the hospital to quickly release him into the agency’s custody. Garcés Pérez said he arrived at the detention center around 4 a.m., where he complained of his continued pain. He said he received no medical treatment at the detention center or pain relief when he arrived until he was given an unknown pill on Monday morning. He added that he had to sleep on the floor in a cold room. Legislators, defenders and Garcés Pérez’s lawyer demanded his release, alleging that he was taken from a hospital and detained within four hours with a bullet still lodged in his back. Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez was shot by an ICE officer in Austin while delivering food on Sunday. Courtesy Attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch “Wilber is a victim of the shooting and the most important witness to it. The key witness to his own officer’s use of force is not deported,” said Juan Proaño, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, during a Monday afternoon press conference also attended by Garcés Pérez’s wife. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency to which ICE belongs, said in a statement Sunday night that Garcés Pérez was in stable condition and in federal custody pending his removal from the U.S. A senior administration official told NBC News on Monday that Garcés Pérez had no criminal record beyond being in the country illegally. According to Garcés Pérez’s lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, he entered the country legally and was seeking asylum. She said Garcés Pérez told her he had notified the immigration court when he had an address change, but that a notice to appear in court was sent to a previous address. Because of this mistake, Garcés Pérez missed his court hearing and was ordered deported in absentia, according to his attorney. Lincoln-Goldfinch shared Garcés Pérez’s account of the shooting, saying he was making a delivery when “an unmarked black truck sideswiped him.” out of the car,” he said. Attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, left, and Garcés Pérez’s wife in Austin on Monday. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on statements made during the news conference or for comment on previous statements made by Lincoln-Goldfinch. Greg Casar, D-Texas, said Monday that “the federal government should not be allowed to shoot him and then disappear from the country so that no one can be held responsible.” “I am demanding, and Congress is making it very clear to the head of ICE and Secretary Mullin, that Wilber Garces must be released for medical care and should not be in Pearsall,” he said, referring to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “He needs to be released right now.” A social media video verified by NBC News captures the sound of screeching tires followed by a person getting out of a dark-colored SUV as a blue sedan pulls up next to him, both vehicles one in front of the other. The sedan also appears to be damaged on the passenger side. At least three gunshots are heard as the person approaches the sedan and runs towards it as it slowly moves forward. The video shows the person standing next to the driver’s side of the sedan as it stops in front of an intersection. his shoulder, as several law enforcement officers gather around. The woman taking the video says, “Why did you do that to him?” The agents tell him that an ambulance is coming. In the video, Garcés Pérez is seen being taken out of the car and handcuffed behind his back. The officers make him sit on the floor. There appears to be a large blood stain on his back. The officers opened the back of his shirt, revealing a bullet hole. An agent asks the woman recording the video if she saw what happened. In Spanish, she responds that “they simply shot him because he didn’t want to stop” his vehicle. “This is unfair,” he says while recording the video. A dark blue Toyota belonging to Garcés Pérez after the shooting. Shahrzad Rasekh / Reuters A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety said the agency had received a request for assistance from ICE for a vehicle chase involving a blue Toyota Corolla. Lincoln-Goldfinch previously said she was with Garcés Pérez’s wife in “Not only did they lie to us and tell us he wasn’t there, but several officers kicked us out of the hospital compound and treated us like intruders,” she said. An anti-ICE protest on Sunday in Austin. Brandon Bell/Getty Images DHS has not provided any information about whether the ICE officer involved was wearing a body camera or whether Garcés Pérez was the target of an operation. Local officials in the news The conference denounced the increase in arrests in its state and called for an independent investigation into the shooting. Austin police are investigating. Police Chief Lisa Davis said Monday the investigation will be impartial and fact-based. He had no additional information to share about the shooting. “I understand that’s frustrating. “I also recognize the concern and uncertainty this incident has created in our community,” he said in a video statement. “But it is important that we distinguish between what we know, what we have heard, and what the evidence ultimately establishes.” The shooting comes as ICE has significantly increased enforcement across the country this summer, making more than 50,000 arrests a month for the first time in its history in July and August. It also comes two months after an ICE officer shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, in Houston during an attempt to make a traffic stop to make an immigration arrest. DHS has said that Salgado Araujo was in the country illegally and tried to run over agents, but has not provided evidence for his claims. About a week after the fatal shooting in Houston, another ICE officer shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, after a traffic stop. Neither man was the intended target of ICE during the operations. immigration.
