HOUSTON — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a Houston man after he tried to run over a federal officer conducting a vehicle stop Tuesday morning, according to an agency statement issued hours later.

Federal agents were attempting to stop the vehicle as part of an unspecified “targeted enforcement operation” in a predominantly Latino neighborhood when Lorenzo Salgado Araujo — whom ICE identified as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico — attempted to evade arrest, according to the ICE statement.  

Salgado Araujo allegedly attempted to ram an ICE vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands and tried to run over the ICE agent before the federal agent fired his weapon in self defense, the statement said.

The shooting comes after federal immigration agents have faced scrutiny for a series of fatal shootings of American citizens in the past year and a half, some of which roiled the nation and led to fierce criticism of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration enforcement.

The Houston Fire Department said in a statement Tuesday that its responders were dispatched to the shooting at 6:51 a.m. and found Salgado Araujo with a gunshot wound to his abdomen. 

He was transported to Ben Taub Hospital with CPR in progress, the department said. He died at the hospital, according to ICE. 

The Houston Police Department said its officers were not part of the ICE operation and they only showed up afterward to help with directing traffic. 

FBI Houston spokesperson Connor Hagan said the office is leading an investigation into the potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General is leading an investigation into the fatal shooting of the man, according to Hagan. 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately answer The Texas Tribune’s questions about why ICE agents were looking to arrest Salgado Araujo or how he came onto ICE’s radar. According to a public records search, the only Texas resident by that name was a 52-year-old Houston man who has no criminal convictions in Texas. 

A man identifying himself as Salgado Araujo’s son posted on Facebook that his father lived in the United States for nearly 35 years and worked in construction to help provide for his family. Ronaldo Salgado posted a statement online, but did not respond to requests for an interview.

In the Facebook post, he said his father was in the “process of obtaining his work permit through the legal process” and was on his “was on his way to work, picking up his workers” when the shooting happened.

“My father did not deserve this,” Salgado said.  

U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, said the man’s family and her constituents “deserve a complete and transparent accounting” of the fatal shooting. Alejandra Salinas, a progressive Houston City Council member, and civil rights groups have also raised similar demands for an independent investigation.  

“ICE has released an initial account, but the facts must be independently and thoroughly investigated, including the circumstances that led to the use of deadly force,” Garcia said in a post on X. “All available footage, communications, and other evidence should be preserved and reviewed as part of a full and impartial investigation.”

U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee, D-Houston, echoed that call. 

“ICE’s actions across the country have caused them to lose the faith and confidence of communities,” Menefee said. “We must ensure transparency in this investigation.

My heart is with everyone impacted by this fatal shooting.”

Mildred Guerra, 23, an insurance agent who lives and works in the heavily Latino east Houston neighborhood, said the ICE operations concern her.

“I’m very worried about our customers,” she said, adding that many of their customers have started calling in payments by phone rather than coming in person.

On March 15, 2025, an ICE agent helping local police route traffic around an accident shot and killed 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez in South Padre Island, where the San Antonio resident was celebrating his birthday with friends. ICE’s involvement in the shooting only became public knowledge after watchdog group American Oversight received documents as part of a public records request.

In January, immigration agents fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good and 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis during an immigration enforcement operation. 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration agents, said agents shot both Martinez and Good after they purposely tried to run over ICE agents. But video footage in both incidents don’t show Martinez or Good attempting to run over the agents. 

In Pretti’s killing, video footage showed Border Patrol agents had already restrained the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs nurse, who was armed with a handgun holstered on his hip, before two Border Patrol agents shot him 10 times. 

Prosecutors have not criminally charged any of the ICE agents in connection to those three shootings.

But in May, Minnesota prosecutors charged Christian Castro, a 52-year-old ICE officer who was arrested in Texas, with five counts, including second-degree assault and filing a false police report, in connection with the wounding of a man during an immigration operation in that state. The felony charges against Castro stem from a Jan. 14 incident in which ICE and Border Patrol agents pursued undocumented immigrants as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Ayden Runnels, Colleen DeGuzman, Lomi Kriel and Stephen Simpson contributed to this story.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.