By Karen Sloan and Kanishka Singh
Sept 20 (Reuters) – An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and wounded a man in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, city officials said, adding that the man was in serious but stable condition.
The man was shot in the torso and taken to a local hospital, officials told reporters at a press conference. The ICE agent shot him during a brief pursuit on foot shortly before 1 p.m. local time, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said.
ICE, the US Department of Homeland Security and the Texas Department of Public Safety did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
City officials did not identify the man who was shot, and said they did not know the identity of the ICE agent involved. Davis said she had not been briefed yet by federal officials and had few details about the incident.
The shooting is the latest in a series of incidents involving ICE, which has become the face of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and whose actions have drawn scrutiny and calls for accountability from rights advocates.
CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat, said he wants city police involved in the investigation, with the additional participation of the Texas Rangers.
“From my perspective, the credibility of ICE doing some form of an investigation just by itself and excluding others would not be appropriate,” Watson said, adding that he is angry about the shooting but not surprised by it.
ICE recently started detaining more people in Austin, Watson and US Representative Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat, said.
“Just a few weeks ago, as we saw the ICE surge come to Austin, especially to North Central Austin, I and others said that ICE needed to leave before someone was shot,” said Casar, whose district includes parts of Austin.
Local TV news coverage on Sunday afternoon showed protesters gathered across the street from a blue Toyota Corolla that had sustained damage to the passenger-side door, as ICE agents stood nearby.
Rights advocates say the federal immigration crackdown under President Donald Trump violates free speech and due process rights. Trump defends his actions by saying he aims to improve domestic security.
PATTERN OF ICE SHOOTINGS
Federal immigration officials have been involved in multiple shootings this year, including the killing of two US citizens in Minnesota, which sparked a widespread backlash. More than 50 people have died in ICE detention since Trump returned to office last year.
The killing of US citizen Renee Good in Minnesota earlier this year showed that ICE cannot be trusted to provide accurate information about its shootings, Casar said.
“It is important for us to have transparency and the true facts in this case,” he said. “Unfortunately, ICE has not been truthful in shootings in other cities.”
(Reporting by Karen Sloan in San Francisco and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Sergio Non and Matthew Lewis)
