A Texas prosecutor said on Wednesday that he was reviewing felony assault charges against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. The agent allegedly drove an unmarked SUV into a fleeing man and fractured his leg in multiple places.
Sean Teare, the district attorney for Harris County, told reporters that video footage of the Saturday morning incident in west Houston shows the officer veering directly into the man as he crossed an empty parking lot.
Teare said the footage could support a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. A conviction for this offence carries a possible prison sentence of up to 20 years.
The injured man, Miguel Parra-Hernandez, was hospitalised in Houston on Wednesday under ICE supervision. Representatives for Parra-Hernandez stated that he suffered serious hip and leg injuries requiring multiple upcoming surgeries.
ICE acknowledged that the 48-year-old was not the intended target of the traffic stop. The agency stated that he is in the country illegally.
Surveillance footage captured the officer pursuing Parra-Hernandez in a vehicle. The pursuit apparently violated new traffic stop guidelines implemented this month following several violent and fatal confrontations involving federal immigration officers over the summer.
Teare is conducting the investigation alongside the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. According to the sheriff’s office, an ICE agent moved the pickup truck that Parra-Hernandez and another unidentified person were riding in before driving the ICE vehicle away from the scene prior to the arrival of deputies.
The district attorney stated that ICE refused to cooperate with investigators and denied a request to access data from the vehicle recorder. Teare said his office began drafting a search warrant when the driver got back into the car and removed it from the scene.
Teare said that in his 20-year career, he had never encountered such actions by law enforcement. Investigators are working to ensure two other individuals, who were allegedly detained in the back of the ICE vehicle during the pursuit, remain in the country to serve as material witnesses.
An ICE spokesperson defended the agency’s personnel and rejected the allegations. The spokesperson called claims that Parra-Hernandez was intentionally struck reckless, false, and disgusting smears peddled by the media.
During a Monday press conference, lawyer Kim Bruno and advocate Cesar Espinosa stated that Parra-Hernandez had no connection to the intended target of the operation. Bruno explained that her client fled because he did not recognise the dark vehicle, which operated without lights or a siren while he walked to work.
