The immigration agent who shot and killed 52-year-old Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston was not in danger of being run over, two passengers in Salgado’s pickup truck testified in federal court this week.
Shortly after the July 7 shooting, the Department of Homeland Security stated that Salgado Araujo had “turned his vehicle into a weapon in an attempt to run over an ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agent” and that the agent had fired in self-defense.
The two men traveling with Salgado Araujo in the same truck wrote in court filings that the ICE agents were positioned alongside their vehicle—never in front or behind it; one of them described the government’s version of events as “a lie.”
The men accompanying Salgado that morning were arrested and are currently in immigration detention centers. Each filed a *habeas corpus* petition alleging that their confinement is unconstitutional and asking the court to order their release.
José Trinidad Rojas Pliego and Daniel Tirado Pantoja attached their accounts of the shooting to their petitions—details first reported by the *Texas Tribune*. Both wrote that they have lived in the United States for decades and have no criminal record.
Rojas Pliego wrote in Spanish that Salgado Araujo picked him up at 6:30 that morning, as was their daily routine. They then picked up the other two men. An ICE vehicle pursued them, and Salgado Araujo eventually thought they had lost their pursuer. Then, suddenly, the agents boxed them in.
Tirado Pantoja stated that a vehicle soon began following them, “almost crashing” into their truck. He wrote that they “panicked” and drove onto a curb while trying to turn around, detailing that the ICE vehicle struck them from behind and then again on the driver’s side.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has stated the opposite: it alleges that Salgado Araujo rammed his pickup truck into the ICE vehicles. A federal prosecutor in Texas said ICE agents were looking for two Guatemalan men—who could be subject to deportation—driving a truck similar to Salgado Araujo’s. The agency claimed he ignored orders and attempted to run over an agent with his vehicle, prompting the agent to fire in self-defense.
Rojas Pliego called the official version “a lie” and “impossible,” asserting that “there wasn’t a single agent behind or in front of us; they were only on the sides.” Meanwhile, Tirado Pantoja maintained that Salgado Araujo “had put the vehicle in park while the agents were shooting.”
Witness accounts also indicate that, after the shooting, agents pulled the wounded worker from the truck, handcuffed him, and threw him to the ground. Tirado Pantoja stated that before losing consciousness, Salgado Araujo managed to say, “They’ve killed me.” Rojas Pliego added that the agent who fired the shots subsequently “dragged us out violently, throwing us to the ground while we were handcuffed and shackled from head to toe.”
Víctor Salgado, the slain man’s brother, also asked a judge to order his release. However, his lawyer requested that the petition be sealed to protect his privacy, so his account of the killing is not yet public.
Salgado Araujo, who had lived in the United States without legal status for 35 years and ran a home-building business, died that morning in front of his work crew, which included his own brother. His family stated that he had no criminal record. His death—one of at least ten occurring during immigration enforcement operations since the start of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign—sparked widespread protests in Houston and calls for an independent, transparent investigation. The agents were not wearing body cameras, and no photos or videos of the shooting have surfaced.
