Wilber Garces Perez, who was shot in the back by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent earlier this month, will remain in custody after a hearing in federal court in Austin on Wednesday.
He will not return to the ICE detention center he was originally taken to in South Texas, according to Daniel Woodward, attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project. Instead, he will remain in the custody of federal court.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas has charged Garces Perez, a Venezuelan citizen, with assaulting, resisting, impeding and hindering a federal agent. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.
Prosecutors argued that because Garces Pérez was on the run from authorities, had relationships in Venezuela, including his parents and child, and faced federal prison time, he posed a flight risk and danger to the community.
Shane McMahon, Garces Perez’s criminal attorney, argued that his client attempted to go through the process of obtaining legal residency in the United States. Garces Perez was subject to an immediate deportation order at the time of the shooting because he missed a court date. He appealed, but it was refused.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Dustin M. Howell, who presided over Wednesday’s hearing, agreed that Garces Perez posed a flight risk but disagreed with prosecutors that he posed a danger to the community.
The prosecution’s argument that Garces Perez posed a danger stemmed from the fact that he allegedly struck an ICE agent with his vehicle, attempted to hit an agent with his car after a pursuit, and disregarded the safety of the public while fleeing from agents.
Never-before-seen body camera footage played in court
Rick Bazan, a special agent with the Department of Homeland Security, said neither he nor his team interviewed the ICE agent who shot Garces Perez, identified in court documents as LG, as part of their investigation. Bazan also said he did not ask LG if he had been struck by the vehicle. A separate DHS unit is investigating the shooting.
Bazan said he interviewed Garces Perez and the other ICE officer involved, named DF in the arrest affidavit. He also said he used body camera footage from ICE agents and footage from local businesses to piece together the sequence of events.
Prosecutors showed body camera footage of the incident, which has not been made public. The footage showed a car chase with ICE agents as they pursued Garces Perez.
The officer, DF, who was wearing a body camera, began calling the Texas Department of Public Safety for backup and lost sight of his partner and Garces Perez about six minutes into the chase, the video shows. He then turned off his camera before calling LG to find out where he was. Bazan said the car chase took place partly through residential neighborhoods.
The chase lasted about eight minutes, according to Bazan. During questioning by McMahon, the defense attorney, Bazan said he did not ask DF why he turned off his camera.
ICE agents first discovered that Garces Perez was in the United States illegally after seeing Garces Perez enter a restaurant and look up his license plate in a database, Bazan said.
ICE agents then waited for Garces Perez to leave the restaurant and drive away, so they could conduct a traffic stop and arrest him in a less populated area, according to Bazan.
The video showed the two officers approaching Garces Perez’s car during the first stop, and ICE agent LG speaking to Garces Perez in Spanish, according to body camera footage shown in the courtroom.
LG identified himself as an immigration agent and asked Garces Perez to park the car and get out several times. Garces Perez said he would move the car and park it. LG then responded that they would move the car for him, according to body camera footage. The back and forth continued, with both sides repeating each other.
Garces Perez then rolled up his window and fled, the video shows. According to court documents, prosecutors accused Garces Perez of hitting a police officer in the torso with his rearview mirror. McMahon, the defense attorney, said it was unclear from the courtroom video the extent to which the car came into contact with the officer.
United States District Court for the Western District of Texas
According to court documents, Officer LG caught up with Garces Perez and slammed into her car, forcing her to spin. In an interview with Bazan, Officer DF reported that the other officer, LG, told him that he feared Garces Perez was trying to run him over with his car.
McMahon then showed video on social media of LG getting out of his car after the crash, running behind Garces Perez’s car and shooting three times through the back window.
Lawyers say Garces Perez needs surgery
Garces Perez’s lawyers demanded that he receive medical treatment. He was shot in the back since the shooting 10 days ago and appeared in court in a wheelchair. Garces Perez sometimes grimaced in pain during the court proceedings.
Lorianne Willett
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KUT News
“He faces permanent immobility and sepsis,” said Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an attorney working on his immigration case, “and medical professionals are requesting surgery for him. Throughout today’s hearing, he was grimacing in pain, and it is difficult for us to see our client in so much pain.”
Garces Pérez initially had a hearing in San Antonio, where his lawyers were going to argue for his release, but it was canceled.
The shooting of Garces Perez gave rise to several protests in Austin, including one on Sunday at the scene of the shooting, which brought together more than 150 people.
This story has been updated.
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