Prosecutors charge Venezuelan driver shot by immigration agent with assault

Federal prosecutors have charged a Venezuelan delivery driver shot by an immigration agent in Texas with assaulting a federal officer, alleging that his car’s side-view mirror struck the agent as he drove away from a traffic stop.

Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, faces one count of assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer over the Sept. 20 encounter. He made an initial appearance Tuesday in an Austin federal court, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Texas. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison, The Guardian reported.

The shooting was not captured in the body-camera images included in the criminal complaint. The agent who fired was not wearing a body camera, and the other officer involved in the chase caught up only after Garcés Pérez had been shot, according to The Guardian. The filing includes three still images from a body camera showing the initial stop, but no video was released.

The officers began following Garcés Pérez after checking his license plate and finding that he had a final order of removal, according to an affidavit filed with the complaint. They stopped his car while he was making a DoorDash delivery. Garcés Pérez gave them his license through a partially opened window but did not get out when ordered to do so.

Garcés Pérez told investigators he knew he would be apprehended and wanted to park so his wife could collect the car. According to the affidavit, he closed the window about a minute later and drove off, striking one officer in the torso with the driver’s side mirror.

The accounts diverge over what happened next. According to CBS News’ account of the affidavit, an officer identified as D.F. said Garcés Pérez led the agents on a high-speed chase before D.F. lost sight of the other vehicles. The agent who fired, identified as L.G., later called D.F. and said Garcés Pérez had tried to strike him with the car, the affidavit says. L.G.’s account was not included in the filing, CBS News reported. U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons said the attempted strike caused the agent to fire his pistol, according to The Guardian.

Garcés Pérez told investigators that an agent’s vehicle struck his car during the initial stop, a detail D.F. disputed. He said an SUV then hit his car after a short pursuit, causing it to spin, and that the agent fired through the car’s rear right window, hitting him in the upper back.

The bullet remained lodged near Garcés Pérez’s spine as of last week, CBS News reported. His attorney and Democratic lawmakers say he is in intense pain and needs surgery. The Guardian reported Tuesday that court documents placed him in U.S. marshals’ custody after his removal from a federal detention center in South Texas.

His lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said he had a valid work permit and was seeking asylum. She said he received a deportation order after missing an immigration hearing because its notice went to an old address, according to The Guardian. His attorneys have sued to prevent his removal. A federal judge ordered him to appear at an in-person hearing Wednesday, Sept. 30, effectively blocking his deportation until then, CBS News reported.