Texas grand jury indicts ICE officer over vehicle collision

A Texas grand jury indicted a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Friday on a felony assault charge after he allegedly drove an SUV into a man who was running on foot in Houston. The officer, Mario Alberto Morales, 33, faces a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said.

The Oct. 10 collision injured Miguel Parra Hernandez, whose family and representatives said he suffered hip, leg and ankle injuries, including a broken leg, according to NBC News. If convicted, Morales could face two to 20 years in prison, Teare said.

The district attorney accused Morales of deliberately striking Parra after investigators reviewed video from nearby businesses and bystanders. ICE disputes that account. In a statement after the collision, the agency said Parra “ran in front of an ICE vehicle and was struck.” It has called allegations that the officer intentionally hit him “reckless” and “false.”

“The evidence that we have in this case is as clear as any that I’ve ever prosecuted or investigated,” Teare said at a Friday news conference. “An ICE badge does not give you free rein to injure, kill, or violate the constitutional rights of anyone.”

ICE responded to the indictment by calling it “nothing more than a political stunt by Houston sanctuary politicians.” An agency spokesperson said only federal authorities can investigate federal officers acting in the course of their duties. Teare, a Democrat, said the claim that local authorities cannot investigate is “false.”

Security video obtained by NBC News affiliate KPRC shows Parra and another man leaving a white truck and running. Another vehicle then crosses a yellow median and heads toward Parra, before swerving left into his path, according to NBC News. After a truck parked nearby pulls away, a man can be seen lying on the pavement behind the ICE vehicle. The vehicle that struck him was unmarked.

NBC News reported that Teare had sought data from the vehicle involved in the collision but said ICE moved it from the scene. A senior Department of Homeland Security official told NBC News earlier this month that an officer had been placed on administrative leave after the collision.

ICE said its officers were conducting a targeted operation to arrest Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, not Parra or another man who had been in a truck with him before they fled on foot. Mendoza-Cervantes’ daughter, however, told the Houston immigrant rights group FIEL and Parra’s attorney, Kim Bruno, that her father died in 2017, NBC News reported.

Parra has lived in the United States for 34 years and has no criminal record, his attorney told NBC News. DHS said he was in the country without legal permission.