An ICE officer shot and seriously injured a Venezuelan man Sunday afternoon while delivering food in Austin, Texas, his attorney said. The man was taken to a local hospital and was “in serious but stable condition” after being shot in the torso, Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Robert Luckritz said at an earlier news conference. The White House referred NBC News to the Department of Homeland Security for comment. A spokesperson for DHS, the federal agency that owns Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement Sunday night that the man was in stable condition and in federal custody awaiting removal from the United States. Immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch identified him as Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, and said he was an asylum seeker who entered the country through a parole program. Lincoln-Goldfinch told NBC News that she learned Monday morning that Garcés Pérez was being held in immigration custody at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas. According to Lincoln-Goldfinch’s office, a bullet was still lodged in Garcés Pérez’s back. Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garcés Pérez told him he had not been given pain medication and that he was being questioned. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Lincoln-Goldfinch’s statements. The lawyer said Garcés Pérez’s wife has not been able to speak to him since the shooting. A dark blue Toyota car appears to have bullet holes after Congressman Greg Casar (D-TX) said a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot a person earlier that day in Austin, Texas, U.S., on September 20, 2026. Shahrzad Rasekh / Reuters “Today at 12:30, Wilber called his wife to tell her he had been shot,” he said Lincoln-Goldfinch in a previous interview on Sunday night. “And he was screaming in agony and the call went dead. That was all she knew.” Public Safety spokesperson Sheridan Nolen said the agency received a request for ICE assistance for a vehicle chase involving a blue Toyota Corolla. A social media video verified by NBC News captures the sound of screeching tires followed by a person exiting a dark-colored SUV as a blue sedan pulls up next to them, both vehicles facing each other. Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez’s wife said he was making a food delivery at the time of the incident on Sunday. Via attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch At least three gunshots are heard as the person approaches the sedan and runs toward it as it slowly drives forward. The video shows the person standing next to the driver’s side of the sedan as it stops in front of an intersection. The sedan also appears to suffer damage to the passenger side. The shooting occurred before DPS officers arrived at the scene, Nolen said. “Once they arrived, DPS officers immediately began assisting partner law enforcement agencies in performing medical treatment on the driver of the Toyota Corolla,” he said in a statement. Lincoln-Goldfinch, who represents Garcés Pérez, said lawyers for the hospital where he was treated indicated he had been discharged, although she was not sure at the time to whom. Lincoln-Goldfinch said he was with his wife at the hospital earlier, hoping to get information about her condition, but they were escorted from the facility. “Not only did they lie to us and tell us that he wasn’t there, but several officers kicked us out of the hospital compound and treated us like intruders,” he said.
