ICE says the officer fired in self-defense
Federal immigration-enforcement agency
“From information we are receiving, he rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.”
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
Contemporaneous reporting preserving DHS's initial justification and attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra's account of what the three passengers said.
Interview
About this source
Documents Teare's decision to use a grand jury, the evidence-access dispute and ICE's continuing self-defense justification.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
ICE officers had encountered Salgado Araujo’s van while looking for different men associated with a similar white van.
After the quotation
Passengers disputed that an officer was in the van’s path, and the later Justice Department statement expressly reserved final judgment.
How this statement is classified
Responding to: The ICE officer fired in self-defense after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo attempted to run over an officer with his van.
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
The fixed reference point is ICE’s fatal shooting of Salgado Araujo. Calling the shot self-defense and describing an imminent vehicular threat directly argues that the conduct was justified.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
Was ICE justified in fatally shooting Lorenzo Salgado Araujo?
Explore the case context, sources and public responses.
More from this case
Read the full case“That is because the President of the United States, Donald John Trump, is covering up unjustified killings of civilians, including Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, and Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero.”Read statement
“This is an outrageous abuse of government power. ICE pursued the wrong van and killed an unarmed man who wasn’t their target.”Read statement
“Lorenzo Salgado Araujo should still be alive today, and nothing about the government's so-called 'search' could have changed that fact. By taking the unusual steps of securing and then unsealing their search warrant, the government has demonstrated that it is more interested in creating a false narrative than in seeking the truth.”Read statement