By Stephen Simpson, The Texas Tribune
July 13, 2026

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Harris County officials still don’t know the names of the agents who were present when an ICE officer shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, leading the county’s district attorney’s office to investigate this case like a criminal investigation to figure out who fired the shot.

“We will investigate it like we do all criminal investigations,” said Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare during a Monday joint press conference with County Commissioner Rodney Ellis. “We are good at identifying individuals who don’t want to be found.”

Teare called the lack of cooperation from federal agencies unacceptable and unprecedented, but his office is determined to get answers for Araujo’s family and Harris County residents.

“In all likelihood, this will take many, many months — potentially years — before we finally get the answers that we all need, but we will not rest, and we cannot do it without the support of the public and the support of our commissioners,” he said.

Ellis said he will present a proposal to the commissioners’ court to fund an independent investigation into Salgado’s death, and he believes the funds will remain as long as needed.

“His family deserves answers, Harris County residents deserve answers, the American people deserve answers,” he said.

Ellis didn’t have specifics on how much funding would be needed for the independent investigation, but promised the district attorney’s office would have what it needed to solve this case.

“The government exercised its greatest power, the power to take life. It also has the responsibility to answer for its actions,” he said. “History will judge how this moment was handled. Harris County should be able to say we did everything within our power to preserve evidence and uncover the facts.”

An ICE agent killed 52-year-old Salgado Araujo on Tuesday after agents in unmarked vehicles stopped him and three others on their way to work, building homes in North Houston. Aside from patchy videos from local businesses along the streets near where Salgado Araujo died, there’s no footage from the ICE agents’ point of view because the agents were not wearing body cameras.

ICE agents were not targeting Salgado Araujo the morning he was killed, according to U.S. Rep. Sylvia R. Garcia, D-Houston, and were instead looking for a different man. ICE has yet to identify who that man is.

An ICE spokesperson said agents opened fire because Salgado Araujo “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer, resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.”

But the three men who were in the van with Salgado Araujo on Tuesday and are now in immigration custody in Conroe dispute ICE’s account of what happened. Law enforcement was not in the vehicle’s way, one man said, adding that officers approached from the side. The witnesses said Salgado Araujo never attempted to ram ICE over with his van, according to written accounts relayed by their lawyer.

Ruby Powers, a Houston immigration attorney who is representing Salgado Araujo’s brother, Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, said the district attorney’s office has interviewed her client, who was in the passenger seat of the van during the shooting. She said Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo told her that “at no point was any officers’ life in danger” and that he  “didn’t know it was ICE until his brother was shot.”

Powers said she’s working to get him out of detention so that he can be a witness in the investigation.

Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones, whose region includes the area where the incident occurred, said there is a need to take action locally because of the series of inconsistent statements and lack of transparency from the federal government.

“Over the past week, I’ve heard from many Harris County residents on this issue. Their message, and my message, is clear: we demand full transparency and accountability,” she said in a statement read at the press conference.

Teare said his office is going to treat this investigation like they do every officer-involved shooting where someone loses their life and once again called for witness information.

“We have an incredibly robust Civil Rights Division that goes out to these scenes and works collaboratively with the investigating agency and finds the truth,” Teare said.

Teare said it was hours after the shooting before investigators from his office were able to get onto the scene. He refused to give details about what their investigators have found but mentioned he was proud of the community support and made another call for witnesses to send any information to their office.

“Anytime a member of our community loses their life at the hands of law enforcement, we run the risk of losing the credibility we worked so hard to build up with the communities,” Teare said.

The Harris County district attorney also said ICE involvement in Harris County is making it harder for his office to prosecute violent criminals because the tactics of ICE are scaring away witnesses.

“I have sexual assault cases of children that I can’t prosecute because the outcry witnesses are too scared to participate,” Teare said. “We have aggravated robbery victims who will not come forward and call the police because they are afraid of their status, allowing people out there to prey on victims without any repercussions.”

Uriel J. García contributed to this story.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.